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^p  Caroline  l^aiatrO 


A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE  TO  THE  HOLY  LAND. 
Illustrated.     i2ino,  $1.50  net.    Postage  extra. 

A  SCALLOP  SHELL  OF  QUIET.     lUustrated. 
i2mo,  |i.oo  net.    Postage  10  cents. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 


A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 
IN  THE  HOLY  LAND 


A  BRIEF 

PILGRIMAGE  IN  THE 

HOLY  LAND 


OF   A 
WEL 


WITH    ILLUSTRA7  3'-  Nv^   FROM 

SItETCHES    AND    PHOTCHJRAPHS 

BY    THE    AUTHOR 


MOUNT   HERMON 
The  Mount  of  Transfiguration 


A  BRIEF 

PILGRIMAGE  IN  THE 

HOLY  LAND 


RECOUNTED  IN  A  SERIES 

OF  ADDRESSES  DELIVERED   IN 

WELLESLEY  COLLEGE  CHAPEL 

BY  THE    PRESIDENT 

CAROLINE   HAZARD 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM 

SKETCHES    AND    PHOTOGRAPHS 

BY    THE    AUTHOR 


BOSTON    AND    NEW    YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

^ht  Citterjsibe  ^xt0,  ^Tambribge 
1909 


COPYRIGHT,   1909,  BY  CAROLINE  HAZARD 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Puhlithtd  October  tqoQ 


FOREWORD 

These  brief  Sunday  evening  addresses  are  at- 
tempts to  bring  back  to  the  College  some  of  the 
wonderful  experiences  of  a  sabbatical  year  abroad. 
They  record  the  doings  and  feelings  of  three 
crowded  weeks,  —  weeks  to  color  the  whole  of 
a  lifetime.  The  circumstances  under  which  this 
little  journey  was  taken  were  peculiarly  happy. 
Many  women  travelling  alone  in  the  East,  even 
in  this  day,  feel  obliged  to  join  a  party  and  go 
under  the  auspices  of  one  of  the  great  tourist 
agencies.  I  am  not  an  inexperienced  traveller,  hav- 
ing sailed  both  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  and 
crossed  our  own  continent  more  than  a  score  of 
times.  So  I  did  not  follow  the  usual  plan.  I  had 
one  companion,  a  dear  and  sympathetic  friend, 
and  an  excellent  trained  nurse  who  had  been  with 
me  in  illness,  and  who  for  the  sake  of  the  ex- 
perience was  travelling  as  my  maid.  I  found  on 
the  Nile  just  the  dragoman  I  wanted, — a  man 
whose  likeness  to  the  butler  of  my  childhood 
seemed  to  establish  a  bond.  He  was  a  native  of 
Assouan,  a  man  of  sixty,  keen  and  clever,  who 
had  begun  life  with  Professor  Georg  Ebers,  and 
had  some  real  knowledge  of  archaeological  trea- 
sures. We  were  thus  an  ideal  party, — two  ladies 


vi  FOREWORD 

with  an  exceptionally  clever  man  and  woman  to 
look  after  us, — free  to  go  or  stay  as  we  chose, 
with  no  fixed  date,  except  that  we  must  be  in 
Jerusalem  for  Easter. 

So  we  landed  under  the  shadow  of  Mt.  Car- 
mel,  as  some  of  my  ancestors  must  have  done, 
for  the  Crusaders*  shell  is  the  crest  of  my 
father's  family.  So  we  took  our  way  over  the 
flower-besprinkled  plains.  So  we  spent  days  be- 
side the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  followed  those  blessed 
footsteps  up  to  the  feast  at  Jerusalem. 

It  has  been  my  custom  at  Wellesley  to  con- 
duct the  evening  service  in  the  College  Chapel 
two  Sundays  of  each  month,  and  at  these  ser- 
vices during  the  months  immediately  succeed- 
ing my  return  I  endeavored  to  present  some 
aspects  of  this  pilgrimage.  The  music  for  each 
service  was  arranged  to  supplement  the  service, 
Mendelssohn's  Elijah  for  Mt.  Carmel,  the  Pas- 
toral Symphony  for  the  Plain  of  Sharon,  Christ- 
mas music  for  Bethlehem.  In  publishing  the 
addresses  they  must  be  shorn  of  a  powerful 
adjunct.  I  can  only  hope  they  may  give  my  read- 
ers a  little  of  the  joy  of  the  actual  experience. 
Wellesley  ought  to  be  a  better  college  because 
its  President  has  been  on  pilgrimage. 

Caroline  Hazard. 

October  15,  1909. 


CONTENTS 

Sonnet :  Mount  Carmel 
I.  Carmel  by  the  Sea  3 

Sonnet :   The  Mount  of  Beatitudes 
II.  The  Mount  of  Beatitudes  19 

Sonnet :   The  Sea  of  Galilee 

III.  The  Sea  of  Galilee  29 

Sonnet :    Capernaum 

IV.  Capernaum  41 

Sonnet :  "^  God  so  clothe  the  Grass  " 

V.  The  Plain  of  Sharon  53 

Sonnet :  Joppa 

VI.  JOPPA  65 

Sonnet :  Bethlehem 
VII.  Bethlehem  75 


viii  CONTENTS 

Sonnet :   ^Jericho 
VIII.  Jericho  87 

Sonnet:    The  Jordan 
IX.  The  Jordan  and  the  Dead  Sea  97 

Sonnet :    The  Wilderness 
X.  The  Wilderness  107 

Sonnet :    The  Lament 
XI.  Jerusalem — The  Lament  117 

Sonnet :  Easter 
XII.  Jerusalem  —  The  Triumph  129 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mount  Hermon,  the  Mount  of  Transfig- 
uration (pags  32)  Colored  frontispiece 

The  Beach  of  Acre  with  Mount  Carmel  8 

The  Market  at  Acre  12 

The  Virgin's  Fountain  at  Nazareth  20 

The  Mount  of  Beatitudes  24 

Tiberias  30 

A  Wedding  Procession  in  Tiberias  36 

The  Sea  of  Galilee,  showing  Ancient  For- 
tifications {colored^  42 

Children  on  the  Plain  of  Sharon  58 

House  of  Simon  the  Tanner  68 

The  Husbandman  and  his  Tools  76 

"  He  goeth   before   them,  and  the    sheep 

follow  Him  "  80 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Dead  Sea,  and  Ruins  of  Herod's  Cas- 
tle {colored)  92 

The  Dragoman  98 

The  Hill  of  Blood  (colored)  no 

The  Mosque  of  Omar,  on  Mount  Moriah, 

the  Site  of  the  Temple  118 

The  Wall  of  Wailing  120 

The  Wall  of  Wailing,  showing   Hebrew 

Inscriptions  122 

The  Obeisance.  A  Father  teaching  his  Son   130 
In  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  136 


CARMEL  BY   THE  SEA 


MOUNT   CARMEL 

Low-browed,  majestic,  stretching  out  to  sea, 
The  long,  high  level  of  Mount  Carmel  sweeps 
Its  giant  crescent,  guarding  lucid  deeps 

Of  shallow  water  on  its  northern  lee. 

Where  restless  waves  are  tossing  light  and  free. 
The  beach  lies  at  its  foot;  upon  its  steeps 
Are  caverns  wild  where  still  the  jackal  creeps. 

While  birds  of  prey  still  circle  noiselessly. 

Elijah  dwelt  here ;  here  the  priests  of  Baal 

Invoked  their  god,  the  while  the  prophet  fanned 
Their  zeal ;  here  fire  descended  at  his  call. 

And  here  Crusaders  of  a  later  day 

And  paladins  and  heroes  took  their  way 
To  conquer  for  the  Cross  the  Holy  Land. 


A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE   IN 
THE   HOLY   LAND 

I 

CARMEL  BY  THE   SEA 

The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall  be  glad  for  them; 
and  the  desert  shall  rejoice,  and  blossom  as  the  rose.  It  shall 
blossom  abundantly,  and  rejoice,  even  with  joy  and  singing :  the 
glory  of  Lebanon  shall  be  given  unto  it,  the  excellency  of  Car- 
mel  and  Sharon,  they  shall  see  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
excellency  of  our  God.  —  Isaiah,  xxxv:  1,2. 

In  the  beautiful  springtime  of  the  year  we 
approached  the  Holy  Land  by  way  of  the  sea. 
Fortunately  for  us,  although  it  seemed  unfor- 
tunate at  the  moment,  there  was  a  heavy  storm 
raging  when  we  lay  off  Jaffa,  which  made  it  im- 
possible to  land.  For  three  hours  the  ship  was 
tossing  on  the  waves,  with  the  wind  and  rain 
beating  upon  it ;  and  then  finally  steamed  to 
the  north,  in  despair  of  making  the  landing  which 
would  take  us  by  the  nearest  way  to  Jerusalem. 
So  it  was  late  on  the  afternoon  of  March  20, 
1907,  that  our  good  ship,  the  Prince  Abbas, 


4  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

finally  stopped  under  the  summit  of  Mt.  Carmel, 
at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Bay  of  Acre,  — 
the  bay  toward  which  the  Crusaders  took  their 
eager  way,  and  the  mountain  which  they  hailed 
with  solemn  joy. 

The  sea  was  still  raging,  and  one  has  to  make 
the  landing  in  a  small  boat,  going  down  over 
the  ship's  side  by  a  hanging  flight  of  steps  and 
being  caught  in  the  sturdy  arms  of  sailors,  when 
the  little  boat  rises  to  meet  the  swing  of  the 
great  ship.  The  landing  itself  has  its  terrors, 
especially  on  a  stormy  evening  such  as  we  had, 
when  the  boat  rises  and  falls  from  eight  to  ten 
feet  and  you  have  to  make  your  jump  at  the 
top  of  the  wave  to  the  perpendicular  wharf, 
where  there  are  only  crevices  between  the  stones 
to  put  your  foot.  But  we  finally  landed  in  safety 
and  walked  along  the  rough  wharf,  with  its 
sharp-cut  stones,  till  in  a  moment  we  trod  the 
soft,  sandy  soil  of  the  country  which  from  the 
time  of  Christ  has  always  been  called  the  Holy 
Land.  Dark  clouds  were  still  over  our  heads, 
and  the  blue-gray  mass  of  Mt.  Carmel  rose  pre- 
cipitously, its  five  hundred  feet  towering  above 
us. 

The  next  day  the  sun  had  come  out,  and  we 
made  an  expedition  to  the  top  of  the  mountain. 


CARMEL  BY   THE  SEA  5 

Lovely  trees  grow  about  its  base,  and  a  well- 
engineered  road  winds  up  and  around  the  face 
of  the  cliff.  At  the  top  is  a  great  monastery,  its 
foundation  datingfrom  the  fifth  century;  and  be- 
yond, the  long  level  stretch  of  the  mountain- 
crest  reaches  out  a  distance  of  almost  twelve 
miles.  In  ancient  times  this  whole  range  was  well 
wooded.  "  Though  they  hide  themselves  in  the 
top  of  Carmel,  I  will  search  and  take  them  out 
thence,"  the  Lord  declares  by  the  mouth  of  the 
prophet  Amos.'  And  in  Isaiah's  time  there  was 
evidently  no  lack  of  trees.  Now  it  is  bare  and 
desolate, — a  long,  bold  promontory  overlook- 
ing the  sea. 

The  Latin  Carmelites  reached  Haifa  in  1 170, 
and  some  twenty-five  years  later  became  the  rul- 
ers of  that  portion  of  the  country.  An  English- 
man, St.  Simon  Stock,  of  Kent,  was  their  gen- 
eral in  1245.  Afterwards  they  were  massacred, 
but  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  re- 
established themselves;  and  when  Napoleon  was 
besieging  Acre,  he  used  the  monastery  for  a  hos- 
pital. When  Acre  was  taken,  the  old  building 
was  destroyed;  but  soon  after,  before  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  present  splendid 
edifice  was  built.  It  faces  the  southwest,  over- 
*  Amos,  ix  :  3. 


6  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

looking  the  sea,  —  a  long  building  of  stone,  two 
stories  in  height,  the  church  in  the  middle  and 
the  monastic  cells  on  each  side.  In  the  very 
heart  of  the  church  is  a  small  cave,  its  rough 
walls  still  showing,  which  tradition  points  out 
as  the  cave  in  which  Elijah  sought  shelter  when 
Ahab  was  seeking  his  life.  A  little  lower  down, 
near  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  is  the  Cave  of 
the  Prophets,  said  to  have  been  the  one  in 
which  Obadiah  hid  "an  hundred  men  of  the 
Lord's  prophets  by  fifty  in  a  cave,  and  fed  them 
with  bread  and  water."  The  monks  will  tell  you 
that  there  has  been  religious  worship  in  the  first 
of  these  caves  on  the  summit  of  Mt.  Carmel  con- 
tinuously since  the  time  of  Elijah;  that  the  sons 
of  the  prophets  really  dwelt  there  until  the  time 
of  Christ,  when  they  embraced  Christianity.  It 
was  at  the  eastern  end  of  this  long  ridge  of  Car- 
mel that  the  prophets  of  Baal  and  Elijah  met 
together.  The  whole  description  of  the  place  cor- 
responds exactly  with  what  one  sees  now.  And 
as  I  walked  over  the  flower-besprinkled  ground, 
I  could  not  but  remember  with  awe  and  wonder 
that  dramatic  scene. 

"  Cry  aloud ;  for  he  is  a  god  ;  either  he  is  talk- 
ing, or  he  is  pursuing,  or  he  is  in  a  journey,  or 
perad venture  he  sleepeth  and  must  be  awaked," 


CARMEL  BY   THE  SEA  7 

mocked  the  prophet,  as  the  day  declined,  and 
the  priests  of  Baal  leaped  upon  the  altar  of 
their  God.  And  at  the  time  of  the  evening  sac- 
rifice Elijah  came  near,  and  said,  "Lord  God 
of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  of  Israel,  let  it  be  known 
this  day  that  thou  art  God  in  Israel,  and  that  I 
am  thy  servant "  .  .  .  "  Then  the  fire  of  the  Lord 
fell,  and  consumed  the  burnt-sacrifice,  and  the 
wood,  and  the  stones,  and  the  dust,  and  licked 
up  the  water  that  was  in  the  trench.  And  when 
all  the  people  saw  it,  they  fell  on  their  faces; 
and  they  said.  The  Lord,  he  is  the  God;  the 
Lord,  he  is  the  God."  ' 

In  the  northern  plain  far  below  flows  the 
brook  Kishon,  to  which  the  prophets  of  Baal 
were  taken  after  their  defeat.  One  can  fancy  the 
concourse  of  people  and  the  tumult  and  aston- 
ishment of  that  day.  Now  the  mountain  stands 
in  lonely  and  desolate  grandeur.  Great  blocks 
of  flint  and  broken  stone  bestrew  its  top.  At 
the  season  when  we  were  there,  lovely  flowers 
grew  in  all  the  crevices  of  the  rock,  —  the 
splendid  anemone,  purple  and  scarlet,  great  tufts 
of  mignonette,  the  dainty  cyclamen,  with  its 
leaves  like  silver  shields ;  and  there  was  the 
fresh  shining  of  the  new  grass.  It  must  always 
»  I  Kings,  xviii :  27,  36,  38,39. 


8  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

have  been  a  wonderful  place  for  flowers,  —  "the 
excellency  of  Carmel."  "Thine  head  upon  thee 
is  like  Carmel/*  the  Song  of  Songs  declares  of 
the  beloved.  It  runs  far  out  into  the  sea,  a 
place  of  strength  and  beauty. 

There  is  another  association  with  Mt.  Car- 
mel far  more  tender  and  charming  than  this 
story  of  wrath  and  punishment.  After  Elisha, 
the  servant  of  Elijah,  had  been  with  his  master 
to  the  very  end,  he  journeyed  up  toward  the 
north,  from  Jerusalem  to  Bethel,  and  then  came 
to  Mt.  Carmel  by  the  sea.  You  will  remember 
the  story  of  the  Shunammite  woman,'  how  as 
Elisha  travelled  backward  and  forward  from  his 
cave  on  Mt.  Carmel  and  passed  her  house,  she 
made  him  a  little  room  into  which  he  could 
turn  for  rest  and  refreshment.  On  the  death  of 
her  son  she  took  the  child's  body  to  this  pro- 
phet's chamber  and  bade  her  servant  saddle  an 
ass,  and  they  rode  quickly  toward  Mt.  Carmel. 
From  the  eminence  of  the  mountain  Elisha  saw 
her  afar  off  and  "  said  to  Gehazi  his  servant, 
Behold,  yonder  is  that  Shunammite.  Run  now, 
I  pray  thee,  to  meet  her,  and  say  unto  her.  Is 
it  well  with  thee?  Is  it  well  with  thy  husband? 
Is  it  well  with  the  child?  And  she  answered.  It 
'  2  Kings,  iv:  8—37. 


CARMEL  BY   THE   SEA  9 

is  well.  And  when  she  came  to  the  man  of  God 
to  the  hill,  she  caught  him  by  the  feet :  but 
Gehazi  came  near  to  thrust  her  away.  And  the 
man  of  God  said,  Let  her  alone;  for  her  soul  is 
vexed  within  her:  and  the  Lord  hath  hid  it 
from  me  and  hath  not  told  me.  Then  she  said. 
Did  I  desire  a  son  of  my  lord  ?  did  I  not  say. 
Do  not  deceive  me  ?  Then  he  said  to  Gehazi, 
Gird  up  thy  loins,  and  take  my  staff  in  thine 
hand,  and  go  thy  way :  if  thou  meet  any  man, 
salute  him  not ;  and  if  any  salute  thee,  answer 
him  not  again :  and  lay  my  staff  upon  the  face 
of  the  child.  And  the  mother  of  the  child  said. 
As  the  Lord  liveth,  and  as  thy  soul  liveth,  I 
will  not  leave  thee.  And  he  arose  and  followed 
her." 

You  will  remember  the  rest  of  the  story, — 
how  Elisha  came  to  the  house  and  went  to  his 
own  little  room  and  "  shut  the  door  upon  them 
twain  and  prayed  unto  the  Lord  " ;  and  after  a 
while,  when  life  returned  to  the  dead  body  once 
more,  he  called  the  Shunammite,  "And  when 
she  was  come  in  unto  him  he  said.  Take  up  thy 
son.  Then  she  went  in,  and  fell  at  his  feet,  and 
bowed  herself  to  the  ground,  and  took  up  her 
son,  and  went  out." ' 

I  2  Kings,  iv:  25-37. 


lo  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

I  can  hardly  tell  you  what  it  was,  actually  to 
stand  upon  a  place  full  of  such  hallowed  asso- 
ciations, —  associations  which  become  a  part  of 
one's  very  self,  as  these  stories  are  a  part  of 
one's  earliest  childhood.  You  will  sometimes 
hear  people  say  that  they  are  disappointed  in 
the  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land ;  but  if  they 
are,  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  fault  is  their 
own.  They  have  not  cultivated  any  sense  of 
historical  perspective ;  perhaps  their  experience 
has  been  limited,  and  they  expect  to  find  things 
in  that  far  Eastern  country  as  they  would  find 
them  in  their  own  home  village  in  the  New 
World.  Things  are  very  different :  the  women 
with  their  one  garment  of  embroidered  linen, 
covering  them  from  the  neck  to  the  ankles,  and 
a  sort  of  shawl-like  veil  wrapped  about  the  head 
and  shoulders,  —  a  most  comfortable  and  pic- 
turesque dress ;  the  men,  in  their  flowing  robes 
which  almost  amount  to  full  skirts,  and  a  coat 
that  falls  from  the  shoulders,  often  made  of 
sheepskin.  They  are  all  different  from  anything 
we  are  accustomed  to  see.  "The  black  tents 
of  Kedar"  are  still  pitched  upon  the  northern 
slopes  of  Mt.  Carmel,  —  low,  wide  tents,  with 
doors  so  low  that  one  must  stoop  to  enter.  That 
is  the  sort  of  tent  that  Jael  invited  Sisera  to 


CARMEL  BY  THE  SEA  ii 

enter ;  and  it  was  close  beside  the  brook  Kishon 
that  her  doughty  but  treacherous  deed  was  ac- 
complished. Here  it  was  that  Deborah  came 
with  Barak  to  the  fight.  You  will  remember 
Barak's  faint-heartedness  when  he  was  told  that 
he  must  lead  the  hosts  of  Israel.  "  If  thou  wilt 
go  with  me,  then  I  will  go;  but  if  thou  wilt  not 
go  with  me,  then  I  will  not  go,"  he  said  to 
Deborah.  And  she  replied,  "  I  will  surely  go 
with  thee,  notwithstanding  the  journey  that 
thou  takest  shall  not  be  for  thine  honor,  for 
the  Lord  shall  sell  Sisera  into  the  hand  of  a 
woman." '  And  it  was  at  the  foot  of  this  moun- 
tain that  Deborah  and  Barak  sang  the  song, — 
one  of  the  most  splendid  poems  of  the  Bible :  — 

**  Awake,  awake,  Deborah;  awake,  awake,  utter  a  song: 
Arise,   Barak,  and  lead  thy  captivity  captive,  thou  son  of 

Abinoam.  .  .  . 
The  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against  Sisera. 
The  river  of  Kishon  swept  them  away,  that  ancient  river,  the 

river  Kishon."  ' 

On  the  other  side  of  Mt.  Carmel  lies  the 
Plain  of  Sharon.  As  one  stands  upon  the  long 
ridge  which  makes  its  summit,  to  the  west  the 
great  sea  is  lying ;  to  the  north,  the  valley  of 

'  Judges,  iv :  8,  9.  '  Judges,  v  :  12,  20,  21. 


12  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

the  brook  Kishon,  and  Mt.  Hermon  in  the 
distance;  to  the  east,  the  mountains  beyond  Jor- 
dan,—  Pisgah  and  Nebo;  and  to  the  south  the 
splendid  Plain  of  Sharon.  It  is  a  true  entrance 
to  the  Holy  Land.  This  way  the  Crusaders 
came,  fired  by  enthusiasm  to  reconquer  the 
land  for  believers  in  Christ.  Just  across  the  bay, 
of  which  Mt.  Carmel  forms  the  southern  boun- 
dary, lies  the  city  of  Acre,  where  Richard  Coeur- 
de-Lion  and  his  hosts  landed.  It  is  still  a  me- 
diaeval town,  with  its  double  wall  and  its  one 
gate,  for  it  lies  on  the  promontory  jutting  into 
the  sea.  We  drove  and  walked  along  that  noble 
beach,  fording  the  Kishon  as  it  rushes  to  the 
sea.  Close  behind  us  came  a  long  string  of  cam- 
els, one  supercilious  beast  following  after  an- 
other in  soft-footed  silence.  Just  outside  the 
gate,  the  caravans  had  gathered,  and  some  fifty 
camels  were  sitting  crouched  on  their  haunches 
in  a  solemn  circle  under  the  olive  trees,  while 
one  tall  haughty  creature  stood  alone,  as  if  mak- 
ing some  profound  oration. 

Inside  the  gate  was  the  crowded  Oriental  life. 
A  narrow  way  runs  through  the  middle  of  the 
streets,  sunk  about  three  or  four  feet  below  the 
sidewalk.  There  is  barely  room  in  it  for  the 
donkeys  to  jostle  past  one  another,  and  horses 


THE   MARKET   AT  ACRE 


CARMEL  BY   THE  SEA  13 

and  camels  pick  their  steps  over  its  uneven 
stones.  It  was  market-day,  and  the  place  was  full 
of  sellers  of  sweatmeats  and  strong  with  odors  of 
savory  broths.  There  were  the  round  flat  loaves 
of  bread,  baked  on  both  sides,  perhaps  two  inches 
thick,  the  same  sort  of  which  Jesus  inquired, 
"How  many  loaves  have  ye?"  Ornaments  and 
leather-work  were  displayed  in  lavish  profusion ; 
leather  belts  and  whips,  and  bridles  for  both 
camels  and  asses  were  shown  in  great  variety.  All 
the  activities  of  a  mediaeval  town  were  being  car- 
ried on.  It  made  a  strange  contrast  from  the  si- 
lence and  solemnity  of  that  mountain  upon  which 
holy  men  had  lived,  to  the  bustle  and  confusion 
of  a  Mohammedan  town.  And  in  spite  of  the 
intense  interest  of  that  strange  city,  with  its  novel 
methods  of  life,  it  was  a  relief  to  reach  the  sea 
once  more,  and  to  walk  that  beautiful  shell-strewn 
beach  from  which  the  Crusaders  brought  their 
pilgrim  shells,  and  to  look  with  reverent  eyes 
upon  the  "Excellency  of  Carmel."  For  us,  it 
was  the  gate  of  promise,  and  the  days  which 
followed  these  first  days  by  the  sea  are  forever 
memorable. 

After  that  overthrow  of  the  prophets  of  Baal, 
for  many  many  years  there  was  said  to  be  no 
temple  or  image,  but  only  an  altar  upon  the  top 


14  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

of  Mt.  Carmel.  Tacitus  speaks  of  it,  and  Pliny 
says  that  Carmel  was  the  name  of  the  shrine  and 
of  the  god.  It  was  the  place  which  typified  the 
purest  religion,  which  showed  the  conception  of 
an  omnipresent  and  omnipotent  God  who  is  with- 
out form  and  substance,  but  a  God  who  speaks 
to  the  heart  of  each  of  His  children.  A  moun- 
tain is  the  most  permanent  thing  in  the  world, 
its  head  uplifted  toward  the  sky.  In  the  midst 
of  his  desolation  the  prophet  Jeremiah  had  a 
message  of  hope  from  this  holy  hill.  The  cry 
of  the  soul  is  for  the  direct  message,  for  the  open 
way.  Holy  men  were  always  foretelling  the  time 
when  the  Revealer  would  appear.  "As  I  live,saith 
the  King,  whose  name  is  The  Lord  of  hosts, 
Surely  as  Tabor  is  among  the  mountains  and  as 
Carmel  by  the  sea,  so  shall  he  come."  ^ 

Let  us  pray :  — 

O  Thou  who  art  without  form  or  similitude, 
who  art  not  in  the  raging  wind,  or  in  the  fierce 
fire,  speak  to  us  with  the  still  small  voice  each 
listening  soul  may  hear.  We  rejoice  O  Lord  that 
Thou  dost  never  leave  Thyself  without  a  wit- 
ness, that  Carmel  and  Tabor  are  perpetual  re- 
minders of  the  ancient  days  of  Thy  glory,  which 

»  Jeremiah,  xlvi :  i8. 


CARMEL  BY   THE  SEA  15 

our  eyes  may  see,  and  our  minds  reverently  con- 
template. But  far  beyond  the  external  may  we 
penetrate  to  the  indwelling  Spirit,  —  the  spirit 
of  pure  worship,  of  perfect  consecration  which 
there  was  manifest.  We  come  to  raise  an  altar 
of  our  own  hearts  to  Thee.  Descend,  we  beseech 
Thee,  and  touch  our  souls  with  divine  fire. 
Amen. 


THE   MOUNT   OF   BEATITUDES 


THE  MOUNT   OF  BEATITUDES 

An  upland  plain,  with  sandy  soil  and  bare ; 

Tall  tufts  of  grass  start  from  the  barren  ground 
And  branching  bushes;  scattered  all  around 

Are  jagged  rocks  to  form  a  shelter  where 

The  foxes  still  have  holes  and  make  their  lair ; 
While  birds  of  prey  up  in  the  blue  profound 
Of  lambent  sky  arQ  circling  o'er  the  mound 

Twin-crested,  basking  in  the  springtime  air. 

It  was  upon  that  sun-crowned  little  hill 
Beneath  the  Syrian  sky  the  Master  spoke 
Such  blessed  words  that  they  are  living  still ; 

"  I  have  compassion  on  the  multitude ;  " 

And  while  He  blessed  and  gave  them  mortal  food 
The  everlasting  bread  for  them  He  broke. 


II 

THE  MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES 

Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit:  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  —  Matthew,  v:  3. 

From  our  earliest  infancy  have  we  heard  these 
opening  words  of  the  Magna  Charta  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Beatitudes  have  been  part  of  our 
mental  furniture.  We  have  heard  sermons  on 
each  one.  We  all  would  say  that  we  know  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount ;  and  yet  when  I  saw  that 
Mount  itself  on  a  spring  afternoon,  not  very 
long  ago,  the  whole  scene  took  on  new  meaning. 
It  was  as  if  that  verdant  plain,  and  that  lovely 
hill,  held  echoes  of  the  Master's  voice.  One 
heard  afresh  His  holy  words, — "  Blessed  are  the 
pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  Awak- 
ened by  the  wonder  of  it  all,  for  us  a  veil  had 
fallen,  and  for  one  transcendent  moment  that 
Beatitude  was  fulfilled. 

Let  me  try  to  tell  you  about  it,  inadequate  as 
words  must  be. 

We  had  spent  the  night  in  the  lovely  hill  town 
of  Nazareth,  climbing  up  to  it  from  Haifa  by  the 


20  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

sea,  a  drive  of  some  twenty  miles.  The  river 
Kishon  was  crossed,  and  before  very  long  the 
low  meadows  of  the  sea  level  were  left  behind, 
and  the  hill  country  began.  Nazareth  is  set  in 
an  amphitheatre  of  hills,  facing  south,  its  streets 
running  in  terraces  following  the  contour  of  the 
hillsides.  One  is  taken  to  the  Church  of  the 
Annunciation,  built  over  a  small  cave  where  the 
Virgin  was  supposed  to  be  when  the  Angel 
came.  The  building  is  an  elaborate  florid  struc- 
ture, and  the  house  they  call  the  Virgin's  has  a 
very  modern  appearance.  The  place  of  real  in- 
terest is  the  Fountain  of  the  Virgin,  a  spring  of 
living  water  from  which  all  the  town  takes  its 
supply.  Here  Mary  must  have  come  carry- 
ing her  water-jar,  just  as  the  women  do  to-day. 
Here  perhaps  the  baby  Jesus  came,  strapped 
to  his  mother's  back,  as  one  sees  small  chil- 
dren now.  The  water  ever  flowing,  ever  re- 
newed, a  constant  stream  but  never  the  same, 
is  the  one  unchanging  memorial  of  the  days 
of  Christ. 

As  we  left  the  city  the  road  wound  up  the  hill, 
climbing  higher  and  higher  till  at  last  the  whole 
country  north  and  south  lay  spread  before  us. 
This  is  "  the  brow  of  the  hill  whereon  their  city 
was  built,"  to  which  they  led  Jesus  "to  cast  him 


THE  MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES     21 

down  headlong." '  There  was  the  Mediterranean 
to  the  left,  and  the  great  fertile  plain  along  its 
border  at  our  feet.  Blocking  the  northern  view 
rose  Mt.  Hermon,  white,  majestic,  a  dome  of 
dazzling  snow  crowning  the  fir-clad  slopes,  and 
we  remembered  that  "  The  trees  of  the  Lord  are 
full  of  sap;  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  which  he 
hath  planted." '  To  the  east  rose  the  mountains 
beyond  Jordan,  the  country  of  Moab.  It  is  a 
view  His  boyish  eyes  must  often  have  gazed 
upon,  for  here  He  lived  till  He  began  to  be  about 
thirty  years  old. 

The  road  wound  on  through  Cana,  —  Kefr 
Kenna,  as  its  modern  name  is  called.  Here  was 
the  first  miracle,  and  here  is  the  well,  with  the 
spring  still  flowing  from  which  the  water  was 
brought  at  the  marriage  in  Cana.'  Here  are  the 
women  gathered  around  it  stopping  to  talk  a 
while,  as  the  great  "water-pots  of  stone"  are 
slowly  filled.  One  walks  in  the  midst  of  sacred 
associations ;  time  turns  back,  —  there  is  no 
beginning  or  end.  Nathanael  lived  here,  —  the 
"  Israelite  in  whom  was  no  guile."  Cana  is  only 
a  little  distance  from  Nazareth,  an  easy  walk 
from  the  home  of  Jesus.  This  was  a  part  of 
His  own  province,  where  He  said  in  the  days 

»  Luke,  iv  :  29.  »  Psalm  civ  :  16.        3  John,  ii :  7. 


22  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

of  His  ministry  that  a  prophet  was  held  in 
honor  except  in  his  own  country,  and  in  his 
own  house.' 

After  leaving  the  village  came  a  long  stretch 
of  plain,  with  an  apology  for  a  road  winding  over 
it.  At  last  even  the  dirt  road  was  lost,  and  the 
wagon  jolted  over  rough  fields  sometimes 
ploughed  for  the  spring  sowing.  We  rattled  over 
half  broken-down  stone  walls,  and  into  and  out 
of  ditches  from  two  to  three  feet  deep.  Our 
drive  was  not  to  become  monotonous,  for  after 
all  these  experiences,  in  trying  to  take  a  ditch 
at  an  angle  we  stuck  fast  and  stayed  for  an  hour 
or  more.  A  shepherd  with  a  fleece  over  his 
shoulders  came  to  our  help,  and  finally  we  were 
on  our  way  again,  always  going  toward  the  Sea 
of  Galilee.  It  was  a  lovely  spring  day,  with 
pleasant  sunshine;  flowers  were  blooming  about 
us,  —  the  anemone  in  scarlet,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  lily  of  the  field,  which  Solomon 
in  all  his  glory  could  not  equal.  Wild  mignon- 
ette and  cyclamen  were  blooming ;  blue  mints 
flowed  in  azure  spikes ;  the  grass  was  gay  with 
lovely  bloom. 

And  then  as  we  went  on,  feeling  that  this  was 
indeed  holy  ground,  on  our  left  we  saw  a  hill  of 
I  Matthew,  xiii :  57. 


THE  MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES     23 

curious  shape,  a  round  green  hill,  with  a  flat 
top,  having  two  little  peaks  at  the  outer  edge. 
Karn  Hattin,  it  is  called,  —  the  Horns  of  Hat- 
tin.  Across  the  grassy,  flowered  plain  we  saw 
it,  rising  scarcely  sixty  feet ;  —  what  we  should 
call  a  "sugar-loaf"  or  "Drumlin."  The  top  is 
level  except  for  a  hollow  in  it,  a  hollow  quite 
large  enough  to  hold  the  multitude  who  came  to 
hear,  —  large  enough  to  let  the  people  sit  down 
by  companies  of  fifty  and  a  hundred,  when  the 
five  thousand  were  fed ;  for  this  is  believed  to  be 
the  place,  not  only  of  the  preaching,  but  of  the 
feeding  of  the  people.  Was  it  not  like  our  blessed 
Lord  to  think  of  the  bodily  wants  of  His  hearers  ? 
"I  have  compassion  on  the  multitude,"  He  says, 
"  because  they  have  now  been  with  me  three 
days,  and  have  nothing  to  eat" ;  *  and  this  place 
was  the  place  where  He  blessed  the  loaves,  and 
the  disciples  distributed  to  the  hungry  thousands. 
And  I,  that  speak  to  you, saw  it !  It  is  not  some- 
thing far  away,  in  almost  anotlier  world,  but  a 
little  hill,  green  and  tender,  a  gently  swelling 
mound,  rising  from  a  level  plain; — justahill  like 
any  hill,  and  yet  a  hill  which  transcends  all  others, 
for  here  He  sat  and  taught,  here  He  uttered 
those  words  which  haunt  our  memory,  here 
'  Mark,  viii :  2. 


24  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

He  who  is  the  Light  of  the  World  let  His 
light  shine ! 

A  little  later  we  saw  it  again  from  the  Sea  of 
Galilee.  This  lovely  lake  lies  about  seven  hun- 
dred feet  below  sea  level,  so  that  from  the  sur- 
face of  the  lake  all  the  hills  about  acquire  height. 
This  mound,  which  rises  less  than  a  hundred  feet 
above  the  plain,  thus  becomes  a  mountain  nearly 
a  thousand  feet  high.  A  narrow  ravine,  the  Val- 
ley of  Doves,  leads  to  it,  from  the  border  of  the 
lake.  A  fishing  boat  could  approach  very  near 
its  base.  Jesus  could  easily  go  "  up  into  a  moun- 
tain "  from  the  water.  When  the  multitudes 
thronged  Him,  it  seems  to  have  been  this  moun- 
tain to  which  He  turned  for  quiet.  "And  when 
he  had  sent  the  multitudes  away  he  went  up  into 
a  mountain  to  pray,"  St.  Matthew  says,  and  St. 
Luke  in  relating  a  similar  experience  adds,  "  he 
.  .  .  continued  all  night  in  prayer  to  God." 
This  was  on  the  night  before  He  chose  the 
twelve  Apostles.  Here  He  was,  perhaps,  when 
the  storm  came  up,  and  He  saw  His  disciples 
tossed  with  the  waves,  and  "  went  to  them 
walking  on  the  sea."  From  one  side  of  the 
mountain  He  could  plainly  see  the  lake,  and  He 
knew  the  force  of  that  contrary  wind.  In  His 
time  many  villages  flourished  on  the  borders  of 


THE  MOUNT  OF  BEATITUDES     25 

the  lake.  Multitudes  came  to  Him  "  from  Gali- 
lee, and  from  Decapolis,  and  from  Jerusalem, 
and  from  Judea,  and  from  beyond  Jordan."  ^ 
Now  it  is  a  desolate  country.  The  villages  are 
few  and  far  between.  The  cities  of  Galilee,  Ca- 
pernaum, Bethsaida  and  Magdala  are  gone ; 
only  ruins  remain.  But  the  mountain  is  there  ; 
the  hills  He  loved  are  the  same ;  the  flowers 
He  knew  still  bloom.  It  is  His  country,  glori- 
fied by  His  life,  and  made  vital  by  His  remem- 
brance. One  realizes  as  never  before  that  He 
was  what  He  loved  to  call  Himself, — the  Son 
of  Man ;  that  He  was  "  tempted  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin." 

It  is  the  poor  in  spirit.  He  declares,  who  are 
truly  rich,  "  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  God." 
The  old  barriers  fall,  old  distinctions  are  gone. 
And  for  His  sake  the  land  is  a  Holy  Land. 
His  blessed  eyes  beheld  it.  His  feet  trod  its 
springtime  freshness.  And  as  He  came  to  show 
us  the  Father,  so  the  land  shows  us  Him,  in 
His  humanity,  in  the  splendid  realization  that 
humanity  and  divinity  can  be  united.  One  loves 
the  land  for  His  sake,  one  loves  the  grass,  one 
loves  the  flowers,  because  here  He  came,  that 
we  might  have  Life. 

'  Matthew,  iv  :  25. 


26  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

Let  us  pray  :  — 

O  Thou  who  dost  clothe  the  grass  in  beauty, 
we  come  to  Thee  to  be  clothed  upon,  knowing 
that  Thou  wilt  clothe  us  with  power  and  might 
if  we  come  to  Thee  with  a  living  faith.  We 
cannot  comprehend,  dear  Lord,  how  Thou  dost 
work  Thy  wonders,  but  we  come  with  believing 
hearts,  knowing  that  Thou  hast  manifested  Thy- 
self, knowing  that  to  the  pure  in  heart  Thou 
wilt  reveal  Thyself.  Give  us  the  pure  hearts,  we 
pray  Thee,  that  we  may  walk  with  the  open 
vision.  We  cry  to  Thee,  as  did  the  blind  men 
of  old,  desiring  to  see.  Teach  us  that  Thy  glory 
is  all  about  us,  —  that  Thy  throne  is  not  afar 
off,  but  may  be  in  our  inmost  hearts.  Come  to 
us,  dear  Lord,  in  this  freshness  of  the  year,  and 
shed  upon  us  the  perpetual  dew  of  Thy  blessing, 
—  for  Christ's  sake.     Amen. 


9 

THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE 


THE   SEA   OF   GALILEE 

Sweet  waters,  whose  serene  and  limpid  wave 
Upheld  the  pulpit  from  which  words  were  said 
To  outlast  time  j  on  whose  banks  feasts  were  spread 

Which  to  the  soul  an  unknown  vigor  gave  — 

You  did  obey,  when  storms  began  to  rave, 

The  "  Peace,  be  still,"  and  each  foam-crested  head 
Became  like  solid  oak  beneath  that  tread 

Which  bore  embodied  love,  and  power  to  save. 

The  mountains  mirror  their  fair  heights  in  thee ; 
Upon  their  slopes  His  blessed  footsteps  trod 
Whom  multitudes  went  to  the  wilds  to  see. 

And  to  be  fed  with  bread  come  down  from  heaven. 
From  thee  went  out  the  Spirit's  mighty  leaven, 
For  here  was  manifest  the  Son  of  God. 


Ill 

THE   SEA   OF   GALILEE 

And  he  arose  and  rebuked  the  wind,  and  said  unto  the  sea. 
Peace,  be  still.  And  the  wind  ceased,  and  there  was  a  great 
calm.  —  Mark,  iv  :  39. 

I  WANT  you  to  think  of  a  soft  spring  day, 
with  green  grass  all  about,  —  short  tufts,  not  like 
that  of  our  fertile  meadows,  but  grass  coming  up 
in  little  bunches  and  clumps  and  intermingled 
with  most  beautiful  flowers:  the  splendid  scar- 
let anemone  in  three  varieties,  cyclamen,  vari- 
ous larkspurs,  and  blue  -  eyed  veronica,  golden 
buttercups,  and  daisies,  all  sprinkled  through 
it,  —  a  most  enchanting  variegated  carpet  of 
flowers. 

It  is  a  lovely  country  to  drive  over,  with  the 
Mount  of  Beatitudes  rising  like  what  we  call 
a  sugar-loaf  hill  to  the  left  hand,  and  Mount 
Tabor,  with  a  dome-like  rise,  to  the  right.  On 
and  on  the  horses  stumble  in  the  miry  road. 
And  presently  there  is  a  cleft  in  this  open  table- 
land, and  looking  far  down  is  the  silver  gleam 
of  the  Lake  of  Galilee.  What  associations  clus- 


30  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

ter  about  It  under  all  its  names!  The  Sea  of 
Galilee,  the  evangelists  are  fond  of  calling  it; 
the  Sea  of  Chinnereth  or  of  Chinneroth  it  is 
called  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  Lake  of 
Gennesaret  in  the  New;  and,  in  honor  of  the 
Roman  Emperor,  the  Sea  of  Tiberias.  We 
associate  with  our  English  word  "  sea  "  the  idea 
of  immensity;  but  you  must  think  of  it  more 
as  the  Germans  use  the  word  "See."  We  have 
the  Sea  of  the  Four  Cantons,  or  the  Sea  of 
Zurich,  among  the  Swiss  lakes  with  German 
names;  and  this  beautiful  sea  is  not  half  as 
large  as  either  of  those.  It  is  another  illustra- 
tion of  the  truth  that  it  is  not  physical  size 
which  influences  the  world,  for  spiritual  forces 
are  quite  independent  of  territorial  extent.  It  is 
only  twelve  and  a  quarter  miles  long,  and  at  the 
widest  scarcely  seven  miles,  pear-shaped,  wider 
at  the  north  and  narrowing  toward  the  south. 
Many  of  our  own  New  England  lakes  are  far 
larger,  and  yet  no  lake  in  the  world  can  be  so 
precious. 

As  we  first  looked  down  from  the  plain  high 
above  it,  it  lay  a  wonderful  expanse  of  bright- 
ness, a  shield  of  silver  and  blue,  set  among  the 
springtime  hills,  while  just  across  rose  the  coun- 
try of  the  Gadarenes,  lovely  pale  green  hills. 


THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE  31 

sloping  sharply  down,  just  as  we  began  to  find 
we  had  to  descend ;  for  the  lake  lies  six  hundred 
and  eighty  feet  below  the  Mediterranean  and 
more  than  eight  hundred  feet  below  the  plain 
over  which  we  had  taken  our  way.  So  it  was 
a  steep  descent,  and  the  road  wound  down  and 
down  by  ravines  and  broad  masses  of  volcanic 
rock,  black  and  grim,  sharply  defined  in  the 
lovely  verdure.  Down  and  down  wound  the 
road,  with  the  City  of  Tiberias  always  in  plain 
sight  as  the  goal  of  the  long  way  across  the 
plain.  It  had  been  cool  and  fresh  in  the  late 
afternoon  breeze  upon  the  upland,  and  became 
warmer  as  we  descended.  The  masses  of  low 
brown  buildings  took  shape,  the  hills  on  the 
opposite  shore  grew  higher,  and  the  day's  jour- 
ney ended  at  the  city  gate. 

It  is  still  a  walled  town,  the  walls  in  places 
broken  and  almost  obliterated;  but  there  is  a 
beautiful  arch  through  which  the  road  enters, 
and  just  beside  it  a  good  little  inn  kept  by  a  de- 
vout German,  who  has  lived  here  some  twenty 
years.  We  scarcely  stopped  to  see  our  rooms, 
but  hurried  immediately  to  the  shore  of  the 
lake,  and  stood  upon  the  sandy  beach,  strewn 
with  tiny  shells,  and  plunged  our  hands  into 
the  most  sacred  waters  of  the  world. 


32  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

It  was  an  enchanting  evening:  the  sinking 
sun  was  shining  full  on  the  opposite  hills,  and 
clothing  them  with  a  softened  glory.  At  the 
north,  the  snowy  dome  of  Hermon  took  on 
lovely  rosy  lights,  while  a  stratum  of  dark  pur- 
ple cloud  lower  than  the  summit  seemed  to  lift 
it  far  up  into  the  empyrean.  As  the  sun  sank, 
and  purple  shadows  fell  upon  the  waters,  the 
light  climbed  on  the  hills  until  the  snows  of 
Hermon  were  left  in  celestial  glory;  and  we 
remembered  it  was  upon  this  mount  that  "  his 
face  did  shine  as  the  sun,  and  his  raiment  was 
white  as  the  light."  ^ 

The  water  of  the  lake  is  wonderfully  clear, 
like  Alpine  water,  and  of  a  soft  opal  greenish 
color.  It  is  over  a  hundred  feet  deep,  and  the 
greatest  depth  is  supposed  to  be  one  hundred 
and  forty-eight  feet.  Mountains  that  rise  from 
its  surface  continue  their  descent  below  its 
waters ;  and  it  fills  the  deep  ravine  cut  among  the 
hills.  The  temperature  of  the  water  is  warmer 
than  that  of  the  Swiss  lakes,  which  are  fed  by 
mountain  streams  coming  from  glacial  sources. 
As  the  level  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee  is  below  the 
ocean,  the  heat  of  the  sun  makes  some  differ- 
ence; but  it  is  also  fed  by  springs  of  volcanic 
»  Matthew,  xvii:  2. 


THE   SEA  OF  GALILEE  33 

origin,  —  very  hot  springs  some  of  them,  with 
a  temperature  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  de- 
grees,—  which  rise  from  the  bottom  of  the 
lake.  The  water  is  said  to  be  at  a  temperature 
of  about  sixty-eight  at  the  surface,  and  at  a 
depth  of  sixty-five  feet  has  fallen  less  than  ten 
degrees,  owing  to  these  warm  sources  of  sup- 
ply. The  fish  are  still  famous  and  abundant, 
some  of  them  of  the  same  varieties  that  are 
found  in  the  Nile.  How  this  happens  is  one 
of  the  many  problems  this  wonderful  country 
presents! 

The  boats  are  still  there,  —  the  fishermen's 
boats  that  our  Lord  used  for  His  pulpit,  and  in 
which  He  found  refuge  in  the  crowded  days  of 
His  ministry.  They  are  heavily  built,  and  clumsy, 
between  thirty  and  forty  feet  long,  looking  like 
overgrown  rowboats,  as  one  first  sees  them. 
There  is  a  short,  stout  mast  in  the  bow  of  each 
boat,  which  can  be  unshipped  by  a  couple  of  men 
at  a  moment's  notice,  and  across  this  mast  the 
lateen  sail  is  rigged.  We  had  the  happiness  of 
being  in  a  boat  under  both  conditions  :  when  it 
was  simply  a  rowboat,  and  each  man  stood  to 
his  oar  and  swung  backward  and  forward  with  a 
low  chant;  and  then  again  when  a  stiff  breeze 
was  blowing,  and  the  waves  dashed  against  the 


34  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

side  of  the  boat  and  flung  their  spray  high  up 
against  the  sail.  One  could  see  that  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  try  to  cross  the  lake  at  such  a  time, 
and  we  hugged  the  shore  and  kept  close  to  the 
protecting  hills  of  the  western  bank.  The  lake 
is  so  narrow  and  the  mountains  so  high  that  when 
the  wind  blows  from  the  north  it  sweeps  down 
through  a  ravine  and  lashes  the  waves  into  a  wild 
fury.  We  had  sunshine  and  a  mild  sky  with  our 
strong  breeze,  and  so  had  only  the  delight  and 
joy  of  the  rapid  motion;  but  when  the  thunders 
roll  and  "He  commandeth  and  raiseth  a  stormy 
wind,  which  lifteth  up  the  waves  thereof,"  then 
indeed  one  could  see  how  terrible  would  be  the 
fury  of  the  lake  in  the  wrath  of  the  elements. 
Did  the  Psalmist  have  this  lake  in  mind  when 
he  wrote  the  earthquake  Psalm, —  the  114th: 
"  Tremble,  thou  earth,  at  the  presence  of  the 
Lord,  which  turneth  the  rock  into  a  standing 
water,  the  flint  into  a  fountain  of  waters  "? 

The  Jordan  enters  at  the  north,  having  its 
sources  on  the  slopes  of  Mt.  Hermon,  but  run- 
ning through  a  low  marshy  plain,  on  which  wild 
boar  are  abundant.  It  enters  a  turbid,  muddy 
stream,  polluting  the  limpid  waters  of  the  lake 
for  some  distance ;  and  it  leaves  it  clear  as  crys- 
tal, a  rushing  torrent  at  the  southern  end. 


THE   SEA  OF  GALILEE  35 

One  cannot  understand  the  Gospel  till  one 
knows  something  of  this  beautiful  Sea  of  Galilee. 
For  here  that  blessed  life  was  lived;  on  these 
shores  words  were  said  which  have  governed  the 
world.  It  was  when  He  saw  Peter  and  Andrew 
casting  a  net  into  the  sea  that  Jesus  called  them  to 
become  fishers  of  men.  The  sons  of  Zebedee 
lived  here,  and  left  the  ship  and  their  father  to 
follow  Him.'  Bethsaida,  Magdala,  and  Caper- 
naum are  all  upon  its  shores.  The  people  pressed 
about  Him  as  they  press  upon  strangers  to  this 
day.  As  I  sat  sketching  on  the  shore,  a  troop  of 
released  school-children  came  thronging  about 
me,  —  not  standing  quietly  behind  to  watch  the 
work,  as  many  California  children  have  done, 
but  pressing  close,  so  that  I  could  see  nothing 
but  eager,  childish  faces,  and  the  tiny  puppy 
which  one  little  fellow  held  up  within  a  yard  of 
me  in  his  anxiety  to  have  the  little  dog  included 
in  the  sketch.  The  people  must  have  crowded 
Jesus  in  just  that  way  when  "  there  was  gathered 
unto  him  a  great  multitude,  so  that  he  entered 
into  a  ship,  and  sat  in  the  sea;  and  the  whole 
multitude  was  by  the  sea  on  the  land."  ^  And  then 
He  taught  them  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
These  waters  heard  the  parable  of  the  sower, 

*  Matthew,  iv  :  1 9,  2 1 .  '  Mark,  iv  :  i . 


36  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

and  of  the  grain  of  mustard  seed ;  "  and  with 
many  such  parables  spake  he  the  Word  unto 
them,"  St.  Mark  says.'  After  the  long  hours 
of  teaching,  when  the  even  was  come,  "they 
took  him  even  as  he  was,"'  and  crossed  the 
lake. 

"And  there  arose  a  great  storm  of  wind,  and 
the  waves  beat  into  the  ship  so  that  it  was  now 
full."  "  Carest  thou  not  that  we  perish?"  they 
cried,  awaking  Him  from  sleep;  and  it  was  these 
waters  that  heard  and  obeyed  the  "Peace,  be 
still!"  3 

The  nights  of  preparation  were  spent  upon 
the  borders  of  this  lake.  He  went  into  a  moun- 
tain, we  are  told,  "and  continued  all  night  in 
prayer  to  God."  What  vigils  it  has  seen !  After 
the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  upon  its  banks, 
Jesus  "constrained  his  disciples  to  get  into  a 
ship  and  to  go  before  him  unto  the  other  side, 
while  he  sent  the  multitude  away";  and  then 
"  he  went  up  into  a  mountain  apart  to  pray :  and 
when  the  evening  was  come  he  was  there  alone." 
Then  St.  Matthew  describes  the  storm,  how  the 
ship  was  "  in  the  midst  of  the  sea,  tossed  with 
the  waves,  for  the  wind  was  contrary.  And  in  the 

'  Mark,  iv :  33.  »  Mark,  iv  :  36. 

3  Mark,  iv  :  37-39. 


THE   SEA   OF  GALILEE  37 

fourth  watch  of  the  night  Jesus  went  unto  them, 
walking  on  the  sea."  One  can  picture  their  fright 
and  astonishment  as  they  "  cried  out  for  fear," 
and  the  assurance  which  that  blessed  voice 
brought  them  straightway:  "  Be  of  good  cheer; 
it  is  I ;  be  not  afraid."  ' 

And  it  was  here  after  the  resurrection  Jesus 
had  the  meeting  with  Peter, —  Peter  who  had 
denied  Him,  who,  when  he  saw  Him  standing 
on  the  Plain  of  Gennesaret,  "girt  his  fisher's 
coat  about  him,  and  cast  himself  into  the  sea,"* 
to  hasten  to  Him.  Here  that  searching  question 
was  three  times  repeated  :  "  Lovest  thou  me  ? " 
And  Peter  answered  with  tears,  "  Lord,  thou 
knowest  all  things,  thou  knowest  that  I  love 
thee."  And  the  blessed  voice  replied  in  tones 
that  must  have  pierced  the  heart,  "Feed  my 
sheep."  ^  Truly  these  mountains  and  this  water 
have  heard  words  which  have  moved  the  world. 
Men  have  come  and  gone,  but  the  lake  lies  em- 
bosomed in  its  hills,  serene,  with  emerald  and 
amethyst  lights  gleaming  in  its  depths.  In  peace 
and  in  storm  it  is  His  lake,  —  the  background 
of  the  Gospel  history,  —  a  part  of  His  human 
life,  whose  limpid  waters  still  hold  the  echoes 

*  Matthew,  iv  :  22,  27.  *  John,  xxi :  7. 

3  John,  xxi  :  17. 


38  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

of  that  voice  which  says  to  every  troubled  soul, 
"Peace,  be  still." 

Let  us  pray :  — 

Our  Heavenly  Father,  we  come  to  Thee  to 
have  our  tempests  stilled;  to  hear  Thy  voice 
brooding  upon  the  waters.  In  silence  and  in 
worship  we  come.  Do  Thou  look  into  the  depths 
of  our  souls ;  may  they  be  limpid  and  pure,  for 
Thy  Spirit  to  penetrate.  May  we  open  our 
hearts,  O  Lord,  that  they  may  reflect  something 
of  Thy  glory.  Touch  us  each  with  a  sense  of 
Thy  presence  ;  renew  us  with  the  streams  of  Thy 
grace,  and  bathe  us  in  Thine  ineffable  light.  For 
Jesus'  sake.   Amen. 


CAPERNAUM 


CAPERNAUM 

I  STOOD  among  the  heaps  of  broken  stones 
Once  capital  and  pillar,  on  the  floor 
Of  the  centurions'  synagogue;  the  door 
Through  which  the  Master  and  His  chosen  ones 
Must  oft  have  passed  is  here ;  and  here  the  groans 
Of  sick  folk  sounded,  as  diseased  and  sore 
Men  brought  them  to  the  street  to  lay  before 
That  blessed  Presence,  Who  could  still  all  moans. — 
This  was  His  home,  the  blue  lake's  diadem ; 

Here  was  the  ruler's  daughter  raised  ;  here  came 
The  woman  who  but  touched  His  garment's  hem. 
Now  desolation  reigns ;  the  sun  beats  down 
Upon  the  remnants  of  that  ancient  town 
Which  lives  but  in  the  glory  of  His  name. 


IV 
CAPERNAUM 

I  am  the  living  bread  which  came  down  from  heaven ;  if  any 
man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  forever.  — John,  vi :  51. 

This  most  profound  and  mystical  of  all  the 
discourses  of  our  blessed  Lord  we  have  all  re- 
garded with  reverent  awe.  It  is  as  if  He  wrested 
language  from  its  purpose,  and  to  enforce  His 
meaning  used  so  startling  a  metaphor  that  it 
seized  and  horrified  His  hearers.  And  then 
when  they  questioned,  and  could  not  under- 
stand, one  can  think  of  Him  almost  scornfully 
exclaiming,  "The  flesh  profiteth  nothing;  it  is 
the  spirit  which  quickeneth ;  the  words  which 
I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are 
life." ' 

The  devout  of  all  Christian  centuries  have 
found  their  inspiration  and  sustain ment  in  this 
discourse.  Divines  and  theologians  have  sought 
to  explain  it.  It  touches  upon  the  deepest  mys- 
teries, the  very  springs  and  sources  of  life ;  upon 

'  John,  vi  :  63. 


42  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

the  union  of  this  mortal  and  immortality,  of 
this  human  with  the  divine. 

The  place  where  such  words  were  said  must 
have  a  peculiar  sacredness.  We  are  so  held  by 
the  power  of  the  discourse  that  its  circumstances 
of  time  and  place  escape  us.  "  These  things  said 
he  in  the  synagogue,  as  he  taught  in  Caper- 
naum." '  Let  us  consider  the  setting  of  this  pre- 
cious jewel  of  truth. 

It  was  a  beautiful  day  when  we  set  out  from 
Tiberias,  in  a  great  fishing-boat,  for  the  north- 
ern end  of  the  Lake  of  Galilee,  to  visit  the  site 
of  the  ancient  town  to  which  Jesus  came,  after 
they  had  led  Him  to  the  brow  of  the  Hill  of 
Nazareth  —  the  place  of  His  bringing-up  — 
and  had  thrust  Him  out  of  the  city.  Then  He 
walked  over  these  Galilean  hills  and  came  down 
to  the  borders  of  the  lake  itself  It  is  a  veri- 
table paradise  in  springtime.  There  is  a  famous 
passage  from  Josephus,  which  is  often  quoted : 
"  One  may  call  this  place  the  *  ambition  of  na- 
ture,' "  he  says,  "when  it  forces  those  plants  that 
are  natural  enemies  one  to  another  to  agree 
together,  it  is  a  happy  combination  of  the  sea- 
sons, as  if  every  one  of  them  had  a  claim  in  this 
country ;  for  it  not  only  nourishes  different  sorts 
»  John,  vi :  59. 


W  "**' 


THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE,  SHOWING  ANCIENT  FORTIFICATIONS 


"^cr*  5rtTl  must 


p;4ji> 


m. 


CAPERNAUM  43 

of  autumnal  fruits  beyond  man's  expectation, 
but  preserves  them  also  a  great  while.  It  sup- 
plies man  with  the  principal  fruits,  with  grapes 
and  figs  continually  during  ten  months  of  the 
year,  and  the  rest  of  the  fruits  as  they  become 
ripe  together  through  the  whole  year.  For  be- 
sides the  good  temperature  of  the  air,  it  is  also 
watered  by  a  most  fertile  fountain.  The  people 
of  the  country  call  it  Capharnum." 

As  one  rows  north  on  the  waters  of  the  lake 
from  Tiberias,  the  western  border  retreats,  mak- 
ing a  bay  forming  the  body  of  a  lute,  which  is 
one  derivation  of  the  name  of  the  lake.  Kinnor 
is  the  ancient  name  of  the  musical  instrument, 
and  the  name  Gennesaret  is  supposed  to  have 
been  a  corruption  of  Kinneret,  derived  from 
this  name.  The  shape  of  the  lake  certainly  sug- 
gests a  resemblance. 

Just  around  the  promontory  which  marks  the 
swell  of  this  silver  lute  lying  among  its  hills  is 
the  Valley  of  Doves,  a  narrow  passage  between 
hills  leading  immediately  up  to  the  Horns  of 
Hattin,  —  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes, — which 
on  the  lake  side  descends  steeply  to  the  water. 
Here  it  was  that  our  Saviour  could  seek  the  soli- 
tude that  His  soul  craved  in  His  busy  days  of 
ministry,  and  go  into  a  desert  place  to  pray. 


44  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

At  the  foot  of  these  hills  stretches  the  Plain 
of  Gennesaret, — the  plain  which  Josephus  de- 
scribes, and  which  in  his  day  must  have  been 
the  very  garden  of  the  world.  It  is  still  culti- 
vated,—  but  only  in  part  and  in  small  orchards, 
—  and  its  melons  and  figs  and  grapes  are  famous 
throughout  the  Eastern  country.  It  presents  to 
the  eye  a  waste  appearance,  uncared-for,  as  one 
passes  its  shores  in  the  toiling  boat. 

Magdala  comes  into  view,  a  tiny  hamlet  with 
scarce  a  dozen  houses,  just  at  the  edge  of  this 
great  plain.  A  little  farther  on,  the  fountain 
which  Josephus  speaks  of  is  still  seen,  —  "the 
round  spring"  where  the  extraordinary  fish, 
which  Josephus  also  mentions,  is  still  found. 
This  is  the  coracinus  of  Josephus  (called  the 
bar  bur  by  the  Arabs),  which  emits  a  sound. 

The  water  rushes  to  the  lake,  a  clear  stream 
from  the  broken  aqueduct,  which  long  ago  was 
built  to  conduct  it  into  the  town.  A  little  to 
the  north  of  the  spring  is  Khan  Minyeh,  just  an 
accumulation  of  ruins,  which  by  some  travellers 
has  been  considered  the  site  of  Capernaum  ;  and 
still  going  northward,  crossing  the  western  bay, 
one  comes  to  the  ruins  of  Tell  Hum.  The 
only  habitable  building  in  sight  is  the  roof  of 
the  little  house  in  which  the  Franciscan  monk 


CAPERNAUM  45 

lives,  who  has  charge  of  the  ruins.  A  large  part 
of  the  ancient  city  is  roughly  enclosed  in  a  wall 
built  of  fragments  of  its  own  grandeur.  One 
climbs  over  blocks  of  stone,  and  in  and  out  of 
curious  little  by-paths,  and  knocks  at  a  closed 
gate.  The  sweet-faced  friar,  in  his  brown  gown 
and  rope-girdle,  opens  the  door,  and  one  stands 
in  what  must  have  been  the  heart  of  that  ancient 
town. 

Here  is  the  synagogue  of  beautiful  white  lime- 
stone, broken  and  scattered,  lying  in  ruined  frag- 
ments on  the  ground !  Corinthian  capitals  half- 
buried  in  the  sand,  and  bits  of  exquisite  Roman 
carving,  are  heaped  in  masses  of  confusion.  One 
climbs  over  and  around  pieces  of  white  marble, 
and  finally  comes  to  a  paved  marble  space,  the 
original  floor  of  the  synagogue,  with  the  bases 
of  pillars  standing  right  and  left.  This  was  the 
centurion's  synagogue, —  this  was  the  place  of 
that  wonderful  discourse.  Here  Jesus  boldly 
proclaimed,  "I  am  that  bread  of  life.  Your 
fathers  did  eat  manna  in  the  wilderness  and 
are  dead.  This  is  the  bread  which  cometh  down 
from  heaven,  that  a  man  may  eat  thereof,  and 
not  die."  ^ 

Here  is  the  marble  pavement  on  which  those 
*  John,  vi:  48-50. 


46  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

blessed  feet  stood.  The  synagogue  is  not  very 
large,  —  only  seventy-five  feet  long  and  fifty- 
seven  feet  broad ;  a  simple  rectangular  building, 
—  but  it  was  beautifully  decorated  within  and 
without,  and  built  of  white  limestone.  At  the 
entrance  are  four  broad  low  steps  leading  down 
to  the  level  of  the  street.  This  was  the  street  of 
"His  own  city."  It  was  here  that  the  people 
thronged  Him  on  His  way  to  the  house  of 
Jairus,  whose  little  daughter  lay  sick  of  a  fever; 
and  here  the  woman  came  who  "  said  within  her- 
self, If  I  may  but  touch  his  garment  I  shall  be 
whole.""  In  these  streets  the  two  blind  men 
followed  Him,  crying,  "Thou  son  of  David, 
have  mercy  on  us."'  It  was  here  that  the  trib- 
ute money  was  demanded,  and  Jesus  said  to 
Peter,  "Then  are  the  children  free.  Notwith- 
standing, lest  we  should  offend  them,  go  thou 
to  the  sea,  and  cast  an  hook,  and  take  up  the 
fish  that  first  cometh  up ;  and  when  thou  hast 
opened  his  mouth,  thou  shalt  find  a  piece  of 
money;  that  take,  and  give  unto  them  for  me 
and  thee." '  The  house  of  Peter  was  near  by, 
where  his  wife's  mother  lay  sick  of  a  fever. 
Here  many  mighty  works  were  done,  and  here 

*  Matthew,  ix:  21.  *  Matthew,  ix :  27. 

3  Matthew,  xvii :  27. 


CAPERNAUM  47 

most  precious  words  were  said.  The  synagogue 
is  in  ruins ;  there  is  no  roof,  not  even  a  broken 
arch.  What  bases  of  pillars  remain  are  hardly 
more  than  three  feet  high.  It  is  absolute  de- 
struction and  desolation,  and  yet  the  blue  sky 
arches  it  as  no  temple  built  with  hands  was 
ever  arched. 

We  stayed  long  and  reverently  in  those  sacred 
precincts,  and  then  wandered  out  to  the  green 
spring  turf  strewn  with  flowers,  and  sat  in  silence 
and  contemplation. 

The  borders  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  Lamartine 
tells  us,  "seem  to  have  borne  cities  instead  of 
trees  and  forests."  In  the  time  of  Christ  these 
shores  teemed  with  life.  Villages  of  large  popu- 
lation— some  authorities  say  as  many  as  ten 
thousand  in  each  village  —  clothed  the  western 
hills.  Capernaum  was  the  garrison  town,  with  its 
Roman  soldiery  quartered  upon  it, — the  chief 
city  of  a  district  where  there  were  many  impor- 
tant places.  It  was  on  the  high  road  from  Damas- 
cus. Trains  of  laden  camels  from  the  East  came 
to  it ;  the  active  life  of  the  world  poured  along 
these  verdant  hillsides.  The  critics  tell  us  that 
Galilee  was  too  busy  a  place  for  the  blighting 
following  of  the  law  which  the  Pharisees  insisted 
on,  and  that  therefore  the  Messianic  hope  burned 


48  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

brighter  In  this  free  mountain  country  than  in 
other  parts  of  Judea. 

And  to  this  populous  land,  full  of  life,  of  en- 
ergy. He  came,  and  lived  by  the  seaside  there, 
in  "His  own  city."  The  contrast  between  that 
time  and  this  is  overwhelming.  The  prophecy 
is  literally  fulfilled:  "And  thou,  Capernaum, 
which  art  exalted  unto  heaven,  shalt  be  brought 
down  to  hell ;  for  if  the  mighty  works  which  had 
been  done  in  thee  had  been  done  in  Sodom, 
it  would  have  remained  until  this  day."  ^  The 
words  of  Isaiah  come  to  mind  also.  It  is  "a 
possession  for  the  bittern  .  .  .  and  I  will  sweep 
it  with  the  besom  of  destruction,  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts."  *  It  knew  not  the  day  of  its  visita- 
tion, and  lies  a  scattered  waste  of  ruin  beside 
the  placid  lake. 

But  amid  all  this  destruction  the  figure  of 
the  centurion  rises  in  dignity,  and  dominates 
his  synagogue.  "For  he  loveth  our  nation," 
his  neighbors  said  of  him.  He  understood  the 
power  of  authority,  when  he  besought  Jesus  to 
"speak  the  word  only  "that  his  servant  might 
be  healed;  and  of  him  the  Master  said,  "  I  have 
not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel." ' 

*  Matthew,  xi :  23.  »  Isaiah,  xiv  :  23. 

3  Luke,  vii :  9. 


CAPERNAUM  49 

The  row  back  to  Tiberias  was  one  X)f  the  un- 
forgettable experiences  of  a  lifetime.  The  sun 
was  setting  behind  the  western  hills,  and  Mt. 
Hermon  at  the  head  of  the  lake  changed  its 
snow-white  dome  to  one  of  rose  and  purple,  and 
finally  became  a  ghostly  mountain  in  the  dim 
evening  light,  faintly  illuminated  by  a  crescent 
moon.  Time  disappears ;  there  is  no  first  nor 
last,  —  the  daily  miracle  is  the  same  as  it  was 
hundreds  of  years  ago.  Such  a  scene  those 
blessed  eyes  must  have  looked  upon;  such 
beauty  refreshed  His  spirit.  In  beholding  it  one 
comes  near  to  the  sources  of  life  itself;  one 
realizes  as  never  before  the  everlastingness  of 
the  invisible,  and  learns  anew  that  "the  flesh 
profiteth  nothing";  that  the  words  of  Jesus, 
"they  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life."  "  If  any  man 
eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  forever." 

Let  us  pray  :  — 

Our  Heavenly  Father,  Grant  unto  us  that  we 
may  know  the  day  of  our  visitation ;  that  we  may 
have  the  eyes  to  see,  and  the  ears  to  hear,  what 
Thou  wouldst  have  us  see  and  hear.  Thou  dost 
still  speak  words  of  wonder  to  us.  Help  us  to 
see  that  the  externals  profit  nothing;  to  get  at 
the  heart  of  the  meaning  Thou  wouldst  have  us 


so         A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

understand.  While  we  rejoice  in  all  the  beauty 
about  us,  may  it  carry  to  each  one  of  us  a  deeper 
sense  of  the  truth  that  is  beauty,  of  the  union 
with  Thee  that  is  Life.  So  may  all  loveliness 
truly  minister  to  the  unending  life ;  so  may  all 
life  take  on  a  continuity,  because  it  is  rooted, 
grounded,  built,  in  Thee. 

Give  us  that  bread  which  came  down  from 
heaven,  we  beseech  Thee,  for  Jesus'  sake.  Amen. 


THE  PLAIN  OF  SHARON 


"IF  GOD  SO  CLOTHE  THE  GRASS" 

He  must  have  known  this  lily  of  the  field 
In  all  the  glory  of  its  crimson  dress ; 
This  purple  iris  in  its  loveliness, 

This  cyclamen,  —  its  leaves  a  silver  shield, — 

This  mignonette,  this  orchid,  all  appealed 
In  beauty  to  Him,  each  was  an  express 
Image  of  joy,  which  mutely  did  confess 

His  care.  Who  in  the  grass  His  love  revealed. 

And  when  upon  the  hills  of  Galilee 

He  spent  the  watches  of  the  night  in  prayer. 
When  solemn  stars  in  silence  looked  to  see 

The  conflict  of  the  wide  world  in  one  soul. 

True  man,  true  God,  Who  should  redeem  the  whole, 
With  dawn  adoring  flowers  were  also  there. 


THE  PLAIN  OF  SHARON 

And  Sharon  shall  be  a  fold  of  flocks,  and  the  Valley  of 
Achor  a  place  for  the  herds  to  lie  down  in,  for  my  people  that 
have  sought  me.  —  Isaiah,  Ixv  :  lo. 

The  Plain  of  Sharon  extends  from  Mt.Carmel 
on  the  north  —  the  Carmel  that  juts  out  into  the 
sea,  with  its  long,  low-lying  headland — to  Joppa 
on  the  south,  and  from  the  Mediterranean  on  the 
west  to  the  foot-hills  on  the  east.  It  is  a  lovely- 
upland  plain,  never  rising  to  any  great  height 
above  the  sea,  but  with  undulating,  parklike 
scenery.  The  historians  tell  us  that  at  one  time 
it  must  have  borne  a  wonderful  growth  of  oaks, 
—  the  oak  that  looks  like  the  California  live  oak, 
with  its  evergreen  leaves.  A  few  scattered  groups 
of  trees  remain,  but  the  luxuriant  forests  which 
must  at  one  time  have  covered  the  country  are 
gone.  There  are  softly  swelling  low  hills,  and 
three  brooks,  —  rivers,  as  they  were  called  in  the 
Eastern  phraseology,  but  to  our  Western  eyes 
hardly  more  than  good-sized  rivulets. 

In  First  Chronicles,  where  the  various  "  heads 


54  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

of  departments  "  —  one  might  almost  call  them 
—  are  mentioned,  we  are  told  who  was  over  the 
vineyards,  with  a  second  overseer  for  the  increase 
of  the  vineyards  for  the  wine-cellars  ;  and  over 
the  olive  trees  there  was  a  tree-warden,  and  over 
the  oil  which  came  from  the  olives  was  Joash; 
"  And  over  the  herds  that  fed  in  Sharon  was  Shitrai 
the  Sharonite." '  The  camels  had  their  overseers 
and  the  flocks  their  special  guardians.  These  all 
follow  the  other  officers  of  David's  household, 
where  the  first  mention  is  of  the  "sons  of  Asaph, 
andofHeman  .  .  .  who  should  prophesy  with 
harps, with  psalteries, and  with  cymbals.'"'  Then 
follow  the  names  of  the  choir,  —  those  who  were 
to  prophesy  with  the  harp  and  give  thanks  and 
praise  to  the  Lord.  The  actual  number  of  the 
choir  is  given  :  "So  the  number  of  them,  with 
their  brethren  that  were  instructed  in  the  songs 
of  the  Lord,  even  all  that  were  cunning,  was  two 
hundred  fourscore  and  eight."  ^ 

The  singers  are  mentioned  in  the  very  first 
place,  and  then  follow  all  the  officers  of  David's 
household.  These  chapters  in  First  Chronicles 
are  interesting  reading,  setting  forth  as  they  do 
the  life  of  the  time.  Among  the  officers  of  the 

*  i^Chron.  xxvii :  29.  '  i  Chron.  xxv :  1. 

3  I  Chron.  xxv :  7. 


THE   PLAIN   OF  SHARON        55 

household  come  the  husbandmen  for  the  Plain 
of  Sharon,  which  was  the  great  pasture  for  the 
flocks  and  the  herds.  From  here  came  the  wool 
from  which  the  cloth  was  spun  for  the  clothing 
of  the  people. 

We  were  to  have  two  days  upon  the  Plain  of 
Sharon,  and  it  was  in  the  freshness  of  its  spring- 
time beauty.  The  commentators  have  had  a  con- 
troversy on  the  "rose  of  Sharon."  One  of  the 
great  Germans  (Delitzsch)  holds  that  it  was  a 
papyrus  which  blooms  in  the  autumn;  but  most 
of  the  commentators  agree  in  thinking  that  it  was 
the  colchicum,or  some  kindred  species  of  crocus, 
though  the  Jewish  rabbis  believe  it  to  be  the  nar- 
cissus. It  might  easily  be  any  one  of  the  beau- 
tifully colored  flowers  which  grow  upon  that 
plain.  Three  distinct  varieties  of  anemones  are 
there :  the  splendid  great  scarlet  anemone,  like 
that  of  the  Italian  hills;  a  smaller  sister,  with  a 
red  more  like  a  poppy ;  and  a  third  kind  even 
smaller  yet,  but  all  of  a  glowing  color  which 
gleams  in  the  sunlight  and  makes  one  smile  with 
joy.  Difi^erent  varieties  of  narcissus  bloom  in  the 
spring,  and  lovely  brodias.  The  whole  ground 
is  a  carpet  of  varied  tapestry.  The  springtime 
green  is  always  a  wonder, —  it  seems  impossible 
that  any  color  can  be  so  brilliant ;  and  in  Pales- 


56  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

tine,  with  its  beautiful  sunshine  on  the  rolling 
ground  of  the  Plain  of  Sharon,  the  fields  stretch 
out  a  garden  of  beauty.  It  looks  now  as  if  it 
had  once  been  more  fully  cultivated,  and  in- 
deed the  whole  of  Palestine  has  a  somewhat 
deserted  look.  But  as  we  started  out  from  Haifa 
for  our  two  days*  drive  south,  with  the  soft  low 
sky,  —  which  seemed  to  bring  out  the  colors  with 
greater  beauty  than  ever,  —  to  the  right  and  left 
lay  the  new  olive  plantations  which  have  been 
planted  by  the  German  colonists,  and  every- 
where were  signs  of  returning  fertility,  respond- 
ing to  the  new  cultivation. 

Instead  of  keeping  the  road  close  to  the  shore, 
we  turned  inland  a  little,  and  went  up  through 
a  charming  rolling  country,  past  villages  and 
over  the  brooks  which  I  have  mentioned.  Near 
the  villages  were  the  wells,  to  which  the  whole 
town  came.  Most  curious  wells  they  are,  unlike 
any  that  I  had  ever  seen  before.  There  is  no 
roof  or  covering  of  any  kind,  — just  a  wall  of 
stone  masonry,  enclosing  a  space  hardly  ever 
more  than  eight  feet  square,  and  an  entrance  on 
one  side.  One  goes  down  a  narrow  flight  of  stone 
steps  of  ladder-like  steepness,  and  sometimes 
makes  a  turn  before  coming  to  the  water,  which 
lies  quietly  some  twenty  feet  or  more  below  the 


THE  PLAIN  OF  SHARON        57 

surface.  Here  people  come  with  their  water-jars 
on  their  heads,  and  descend  into  the  wells.  One 
remembers  how  the  daughters  of  the  priest  of 
Midian  went  out  to  water  their  flocks,  and  the 
strife  which  was  at  the  well,  when  "  the  shep- 
herds came  and  drove  them  away :  but  Moses 
stood  up  and  helped  them,  and  watered  their 
flock."  '  They  probably  descended  just  as  these 
women  did,  and  brought  the  water  up  and  filled 
the  troughs  for  the  flocks  to  drink.  Abraham's 
servant  met  Rebecca  at  the  well,  and  said,  "  Let 
me,  I  pray  thee,  drink  a  little  water  of  thy  pitcher. 
And  she  said.  Drink,  my  lord  :  and  she  hasted 
and  let  down  her  pitcher  upon  her  hand,  and 
gave  him  drink."*  It  all  lives  before  one  again; 
it  might  happen  to-day,  as  one  sees  the  wo- 
men in  their  loosely  flowing  garments,  with  the 
heavy  water-jars  gracefully  poised  upon  their 
heads. 

All  along  the  plain  public  work  was  going  on 
in  the  way  of  mending  the  roads,  and  groups  of 
children  and  girls  were  carrying  stones,  —  each 
just  one  individual  stone,  six  or  eight  inches  in 
diameter  perhaps  ;  a  roughly  hewn  block, — and 
carrying  it  upon  their  heads.  Many  of  the  little 
girls  eight  or  ten  years  old  had  babies  strapped 
Exodus,  ii:  17.  »  Genesis,  xxiv  :  17,  18. 


58  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

upon  their  backs,  the  small  heads  looking  over 
their  shoulders.  If  they  were  thus  encumbered, 
they  generally  carried  the  stone  in  their  arms ; 
but  all  day  long  the  babies  would  be  strapped  to 
these  children,  while  they  went  on  with  their 
work,  bringing  stones  one  by  one  to  mend  the 
road.  They  seemed  to  be  a  happy  and  cheerful 
lot  of  little  people  ;  but  one  could  not  think  that 
their  task  was  a  very  suitable  one,  especially  for 
the  little  older  sisters  who  were  doing  duty  as 
mothers.  They  laughed  and  chatted  gayly  and 
came  running  about  us,  and  seemed  to  be  quite 
delighted  to  have  their  photographs  taken  and 
to  have  a  small  handful  of  sweets  distributed  to 
them. 

Toward  the  late  afternoon  we  came  into  a 
country  even  more  rolling  and  parklike;  the 
day  began  to  lower,  and  the  sweet  spring  rain 
came  on, — not  a  heavy,  drenching  rain,  but  gen- 
tle showers,  —  and  we  were  glad  to  reach  our 
resting  place  in  Zimmerim.  This  is  one  of  the 
Jewish  colonies,  established  by  Baron  Roths- 
child, under  the  auspices  of  the  Society  for  the 
Recolonization  of  Palestine.  It  was  just  before 
the  Passover  time,  and  the  whole  town  had 
given  up  its  ordinary  business  and  was  prepar- 
ing for  the  great  feast.  We  went  to  the  syna- 


THE  PLAIN  OF  SHARON        59 

gogue, —  a  good  modern  building,  put  up  by 
Baron  Rothschild,  —  which  seemed  strangely 
out  of  place  in  the  associations  of  the  country 
which  carry  one  so  far  back.  Shewbread  was 
being  baked,  and  some  was  given  us.  The  little 
inn  was  full  of  people  coming  and  going,  but 
our  dragoman  calmly  seized  upon  the  pub- 
lic parlor,  and  served  us  himself  with  our  even- 
ing meal.  Here  we  were  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  Plain  of  Sharon,  —  the  emblem  of  all  fer- 
tility, the  name  which  typifies  loveliness.  The 
writer  of  the  Song  of  Songs  was  certainly  a 
great  lover  of  nature ;  and  though  his  work  is 
too  universal  to  be  claimed  by  any  one  section 
of  the  country,  yet  it  perhaps  more  nearly  de- 
scribes the  Plain  of  Sharon  in  its  physical  fea- 
tures than  any  other  part  of  Palestine. 

The  second  day  took  us  out  of  the  hill  coun- 
try back  toward  the  sea;  and  in  mid-afternoon, 
with  glorious  sunshine  bringing  out  the  sapphire 
blue  of  the  Mediterranean,  we  reached  the  an- 
cient port  of  Joppa.  But  the  two  days'  drive 
over  the  lovely  country  had  brought  home  to 
us  as  nothing  else  could  the  extent  of  the  land. 
Distances  in  the  Bible  are  mentioned  by  a  man's 
day's  walk,  and  the  forty-four  miles  which  we 
had  come  would  perhaps  be  divided  into  more 


6o  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

than  two  days.  The  country,  as  I  have  said  be- 
fore, is  a  small  country,  —  a  country  the  extent  of 
which  one  can  easily  grasp, — and  yet  a  country 
which  combines  within  its  borders  almost  every 
variety  of  physical  feature  and  of  climate.  The 
Plain  of  Sharon  has  the  advantage  of  the  sea, 
and  can  never  be  as  dry  and  desolate  as  the  Jor- 
dan valley.  Indeed,  when  the  prophet  wishes  to 
speak  of  destruction  he  declares  that  "Sharon 
is  like  a  wilderness."' 

None  of  the  most  sacred  associations  cluster 
about  it;  we  do  not  know  that  our  Lord  ever 
walked  its  length.  His  journeys  that  we  know 
of  are  to  Jerusalem,  and  were  through  the  Jor- 
dan valley.  But  from  the  Hill  of  Nazareth  He 
could  have  seen  the  sea  as  He  looked  toward 
the  south.  In  the  farther  distance,  the  edge  of 
this  plain  must  have  been  visible,  and  the  devout 
of  all  ages  have  taken  that  lovely  verse  from  the 
Song  of  Songs  and  have  applied  it  to  Him: 
"  I  am  the  Rose  of  Sharon  and  the  Lily  of  the 
Valley.'" 

Jesus  was  a  good  husbandman.  He  knew  the 
various  kinds  of  soil :  the  stony  places  with  no 
deepness  of  earth;  the  thorns  which  spring  up  and 
choke  the  seed;  and  the  good  soil, — all  were 

»  Isaiah,  xxxm  :  9.       *  The  Song  of  Solomon,  ii :  i . 


THE  PLAIN   OF   SHARON        6i 

known  to  Him.  Here  on  the  plain  is  growing 
the  mustard  seed  he  spoke  of,'  and  the  grass  is 
full  of  flowers.  He  was  the  first  naturalist  of  the 
great  teachers.  The  great  men  of  Greece  rea- 
soned in  abstract  terms,  were  purely  ethical. 
Jesus  called  our  attention  to  the  beauty  of  the 
world  about  us :  "Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field, 
how  they  grow;  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 
spin :  and  yet  I  say  unto  you,  that  even  Solo- 
mon in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one 
of  these."' 

To  cross  this  plain  was  a  fit  preparation  for 
the  more  sacred  scenes  which  followed.  Jesus 
speaks  of  Himself  constantly  as  the  good  shep- 
herd, and  uses  pastoral  similes  of  Himself.  This 
was  the  great  sheepfold;  here  the  flocks  were 
led  by  their  shepherds.  Our  blessed  Lord  con- 
stantly spoke  of  sheep, — of  the  ninety  and  nine, 
and  the  one  lost  sheep.  "Feed  my  sheep"  was 
the  charge  to  Peter.  So  to  live  upon  these  up- 
land pastures  for  even  a  couple  of  days,  sitting 
on  the  ground  for  our  mid-day  meal,  gathering 
the  flowers  of  David's  sheepcotes,  gives  a  new 
meaning  to  the  words  of  Christ:  "I  am  the 
good  shepherd ;  the  good  shepherd  giveth  his  life 
for  the  sheep." 

•  Matthew,  xiv  132.  »  Matthew,  vi :  28,  29. 


62  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

Let  us  pray :  — 

O  Thou  Who  dost  watch  over  Israel,  Who 
dost  not  slumber  nor  sleep,  we  give  Thee 
thanks  for  the  beauty  of  Thy  visible  world,  for 
the  springing  of  the  flowers,  for  the  softness 
of  the  grass.  Thou  dost  prepare  the  meadows 
for  the  cattle,  and  herbs  for  the  service  of  man. 
The  whole  earth  is  full  of  Thy  goodness.  May 
it  be  ours,  O  Lord,  to  look  beyond  the  exter- 
nal, to  rejoice  in  beauty  because  it  is  a  part  of 
Thine  own  ineffable  perfection.  As  a  well  of 
water  in  a  thirsty  land,  so  may  the  thought 
of  Thy  love  be  to  us,  to  refresh,  to  sustain,  to 
make  alive.  Quicken  our  hearts  and  minds,  we 
beseech  Thee,  by  the  inspiration  of  Thy  Holy 
Spirit,  that  we  may  follow  the  Good  Shepherd, 
and  go  in  and  out,  and  find  pasture.    Amen. 


JOPPA 


JOPPA 

The  ships  of  Hiram  sailed  these  seas  so  blue, 
And  brought  from  Lebanon  the  goodly  store 
Of  cedar  for  the  Temple  wall  and  floor. 

And  to  these  jagged  rocks  of  blackest  hue 

Andromeda  was  chained ;  here  Perseus  slew 
The  dragon.  From  this  port  with  laboring  oar 
The  ships  of  Tarshish  fleeing  Jonah  bore; 

The  waters  teem  with  sacrifice  and  rue. 

The  prophet  Moses  from  Mount  Pisgah's  height 
Beheld  this  sea,  e'er  yet  he  fell  on  sleep ; 
And  David  sang  of  all  its  tragic  might, 

Of  that  Leviathan  with  giant  play 

And  stormy  wind  the  Lord  alone  can  stay. 
And  wild,  tempestuous  wonders  of  the  deep. 


VI 

JOPPA 

And  he  said  unto  them.  Take  me  up,  and  cast  me  forth 
into  the  sea;  so  shall  the  sea  be  calm  iinto  you:  for  I  know 
that  for  my  sake  this  great  tempest  is  upon  you.  — Jonah, 
i:  12. 

Jonah  was  flying  from  a  duty,  —  was  in  a 
state  of  open  disobedience.  But  is  there  not 
something  fine  in  his  acknowledgment  of  re- 
sponsibility, and  taking  the  consequences  of  his 
revolt?  It  shows  how  such  a  man  came  to  be 
chosen  for  a  special  message,  and  why  he  was 
preserved  to  carry  it  out. 

The  Biblical  critics  frankly  admit  that  the 
book  of  Jonah  is  simply  an  edifying  tale,  —  a 
tale  which  shows  the  futility  of  trying  to  escape 
from  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  and  which  sets  forth 
the  gentleness  of  God.  "  Doest  thou  well  to  be 
angry?"  the  Divine  voice  asks  the  prophet 
sitting  beside  his  withered  vine,  and  wishing  he 
was  dead,  because  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  had 
spared  Nineveh,  "  that  great  city,  wherein  are 
more  than  sixscore  thousand  persons  that  can- 


66  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

not  discern  between  their  right  hand  and  their 
left  hand,  and  also  much  cattle."  ' 

The  short  story  of  the  prophet  contains  a 
lovely  song,  or  psalm,  a  sea  song:  — 

*«  For  thou  hadst  cast  me  into  the  deep,  in  the  midst  of  the 
seas  ; 

And  the  floods  compassed  me  about ; 

All  thy  billows  and  thy  waves  passed  over  me. 
The  waters  compassed  me  about,  even  to  the  soul  : 
The  depths  closed  me  round  about. 
The  weeds  were  wrapped  about  my  head. 

I  went  down  to  the  bottoms  of  the  mountains ; 
The  earth  with  her  bars  was  about  me  forever  : 
Yet  hast  thou  brought  up  my  life  from  corruption,  O  Lord 
my  God."« 

It  is  Strange  to  find  in  the  Biblical  writings  so 
few  references  to  the  sea.  The  104th  Psalm, 
of  "  this  great  and  wide  sea,"  and  the  descrip- 
tion of  a  storm  in  the  107th  are  the  most 
famous  passages.  David  was  a  hill  man;  his 
own  country  was  of  an  inland  character.  The 
people  of  Israel  had  few  if  any  vessels.  It  was 
Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  who  sent  timber  for 
the  temple.  "  I  will  do  all  thy  desire,"  King 
Hiram  said  to  Solomon,  "  concerning  timber 
of  cedar,  and  concerning  timber  of  fir.  My  ser- 

'  Jonah,  iv  :  1 1.  *  Jonah,  ii  :  3-7. 


JOPPA  67 

vants  shall  bring  them  down  from  Lebanon 
unto  the  sea;  and  I  will  convey  them  by  sea 
in  floats  unto  the  place  thou  shalt  appoint 
me." '  This  was  on  the  Mediterranean,  of  course, 
and  in  all  probability  it  was  to  Joppa  that  the 
timber  came,  for  Joppa  is  the  nearest  port  to 
Jerusalem,  only  some  forty  miles  away.  The 
name  of  the  city  is  derived  from  Japheh,  mean- 
ing beautiful,  and  it  is  mentioned  as  a  Canaanite 
port  on  tablets  which  still  exist  and  date  from 
the  fifteenth  century  b.c.  The  harbor  is  only  a 
semblance  of  a  harbor ;  great  reefs  guard  its  en- 
trance, and  the  sea  dashes  over  them  with  fury, 
making  an  entry  often  impossible. 

Beside  these  Biblical  associations  of  an  early 
day,  Joppa  was  localized  as  the  scene  of  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  the  Greek  myths.  It  was 
to  these  rocks  that  Andromeda  was  chained, 
and  here  Perseus  came  and  killed  the  dragon. 
In  the  time  of  Pliny  the  chains  were  still  shown  ! 
All  the  charming  old  tales  are  being  explained 
by  modern  scholarship,  and  we  are  told  that  the 
story  of  Perseus  and  Andromeda  had  its  base 
in  a  lunar  eclipse,  the  dragon  being  the  Earth- 
shadow.  But  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  both 
in  the  Biblical  story,  and  in  the  classical  one, 
*   I  Kings,  V  :  8,  9. 


68  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

there  is  a  monster.  Is  it  not  more  freely  inter- 
preted by  saying  that  there  has  always  been 
the  conflict  between  good  and  evil,  —  between 
the  raging  of  the  sea  and  the  safety  of  land? 
Isaiah  speaks  of  it:  "  In  that  day  the  Lord  with 
his  sore  and  great  and  strong  sword  shall  punish 
leviathan  .  .  .  that  crooked  serpent;  and  he 
shall  slay  the  dragon  that  is  in  the  sea."  ^  This  is 
supposed  to  have  been  written  seven  hundred 
years  before  Christ.  Had  Isaiah  heard  of  Per- 
seus' monster,  — a  devouring  evil  creature,  to 
whom  the  best  and  fairest  had  to  be  sacrificed? 
These  ancient  associations  cluster  round  that 
seaside  city,  and  we  found  ourselves  one  fair 
spring  morning  in  a  very  garden  of  the  Lord. 
Oranges  hung  thick  amid  their  shining  darksome 
leaves,  the  golden  apples  of  the  Hesperides; 
oleander  trees  stood  about,  vineyards  stretched 
toward  the  hills.  The  blue  sea  lapped  its  pebbly 
beach,  as  if  no  breath  of  storm  could  ever  disturb 
it.  The  streets  are  narrow  and  most  picturesque, 
with  people  from  every  nation  under  heaven 
thronging  them.  In  true  Oriental  fashion,  cook- 
ing and  various  household  economies  were  going 
on  in  broad  daylight  in  the  open,  and  we  threaded 
our  way  through  many  distracting  interests :  past 
'  Isaiah,  xxvii ;  i . 


tr.;  '  >  --  .  '^. 


t 


HOUSE   OF   SIMON  THE  TANNER 


JOPPA  69 

supercilious  camels  and  ambling  donkeys  and 
persuasive  sweetmeat-sellers,  to  a  little  square 
house  overlooking  the  harbor,  halfway  up  the 
hillside  upon  which  the  city  is  built.  Tradition 
calls  this  the  house  of  Simon  the  tanner.  Here 
it  was  that  Peter  was  lodging,  when  Cornelius 
the  centurion  had  the  word:  "And  now  send 
men  to  Joppa,  and  call  for  one  Simon,  whose 
surname  is  Peter."  Here  it  was  that  the  vision 
came  to  Peter,  and  that  he  was  shaken  from  his 
stronghold  of  Judaism. — "What  God  hath 
cleansed,  that  call  not  thou  common."  ^ 

Whether  we  believe  that  this  was  the  very 
house  or  not,  the  place  was  near  here,  and  there 
could  hardly  be  a  more  impressive  one  to  bring 
home  the  lesson  of  the  universality  of  the  Father- 
hood of  God.  It  is  a  place  steeped  in  ancient 
tradition, — tradition  which  we  have  been  taught 
to  call  heathen,  but  which  denoted  a  firm  belief 
in  the  triumph  of  good  over  evil;  a  port  of  en- 
try, almost  the  only  one  in  Palestine,  where  men 
of  all  nations  congregated  even  more  than  at  this 
day.  It  was  the  very  place  to  enforce  such  a  les- 
son. "  God  hath  showed  me  that  I  should  not 
call  any  man  common  or  unclean,"  the  Apostle 
humbly  declares.* 

^  Acts,  X  :  5,15.  »  Acts,  x :  28. 


70  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

Dragons  seem  to  have  belonged  in  that  partic- 
ular part  of  the  country,  for  Lydda  is  only  a  few 
miles  away,  and  it  was  in  Lydda  that  St.  George 
slew  the  dragon,  and  became  the  patron  saint  of 
England.  In  Lydda  St.  Peter  was  staying  when 
that  holy  woman  who  was  full  of  good  works 
died  in  Joppa.  "  And  forasmuch  as  Lydda  was 
nigh  to  Joppa  and  the  disciples  heard  that  Peter 
was  there,  they  sent  unto  him  two  men  desiring 
that  he  would  not  delay  to  come  to  them."  ' 

How  graphic  the  scene  is,  —  the  widows  who 
stood  about  weeping,  and  showing  the  coats  and 
garments  Dorcas  had  made  for  them,  and  their 
joy  when  she  was  "presented  unto  them  alive"! 
It  was  in  Joppa  that  St.  Peter  tarried  many 
days,  —  days  of  preparation  for  his  after  ministry. 
It  is  a  place  of  old  and  new.  Jonah  —  Andro- 
meda—  St.  Peter  —  Dorcas!  Two  prophets: 
one  of  the  old  dispensation,  announcing  wrath 
and  judgment  to  come;  one  of  the  new,  declar- 
ing, "  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  God  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons :  but  in  every  nation  he  that 
feareth  him,  and  worketh  righteousness,  is  ac- 
cepted with  him."  *  Two  women :  one,  the  type 
of  maiden  purity  delivered  to  the  powers  of  evil 
as  a  sacrifice;    the  other,  the  woman  who  was 

»  Acts,  ix  :  38.  ^  Acts,  x  :  34,  35. 


JOPPA  71 

"full  of  good  works  and  alms  deeds  which  she 
did." 

And  there  the  city  stands  around  which  these 
lovely  stories  cluster.  The  sea  then  "wrought 
and  was  tempestuous,"  as  it  does  to  this  day. 
The  eye  of  imagination  may  still  see  leviathan 
playing  in  the  waters,  and  King  Hiram's  trans- 
ports threading  their  way  into  the  rock-bound 
harbor.  We  still  have  our  dragons,  —  Perseus 
and  St.  George  have  not  exterminated  them  all. 
The  world  is  waiting  for  Andromeda,  and  still 
more  for  the  active  Dorcas.  Under  Syrian  skies, 
or  in  a  western  world,  the  call  is  the  same, — a 
call  to  service,  to  high  living,  to  wage  war  on  the 
powers  of  evil.  "  Thou  shalt  tread  upon  the  lion 
and  adder,  the  young  lion  and  the  dragon  shalt 
thou  trample  under  feet." 

Let  us  pray :  — 

Thou  knowest,  O  Lord,  the  dragons  we  each 
one  have  to  fight,  —  of  self-indulgence,  of  eva- 
sion, of  fear.  Thou  who  alone  canst  give  cour- 
age, come  to  each  of  us,  we  pray  Thee,  to  arm 
us  with  Thine  own  invisible  might.  Make  us 
strong  to  overcome,  and  send  us  forth  prepared 
for  Thy  service  in  whatever  way  Thou  shalt 
require :  in  ways  of  sacrifice,  or  ways  of  construe- 


72  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

tive  work,  ready  to  do,  or  to  bear,  as  Thou  shalt 
appoint.  All  the  doing,  all  the  bearing  is  for 
Thee,  dear  Lord.  Fit  us  then  for  Thy  work,  we 
beseech  Thee.  We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake. 
Amen. 


* 

BETHLEHEM 


BETHLEHEM 

A  MOUNTAIN  town,  with  dark  red  soil  of  clay ; 
Far  in  the  East  uprises  Pisgah's  height 
From  which  the  dying  Moses  had  a  sight 

Of  all  the  promised  land.  The  ancient  way 

Winds  up  the  stony  hillside ;  children  play 
Beneath  old  olives,  ruddy  children,  bright 
With  sparkling  eyes ;  and  camels  in  their  might 

Stalk  proudly,  bearing  loads  with  trappings  gay. 

A  land  of  pasture ;  here  the  Shepherd's  Psalm 
Takes  on  new  meaning;  here  is  David's  well. 
With  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats,  and  rural  calm. 

And  in  this  cave,  which  sheltered  once  King  Saul, 
This  hidden  place,  was  born  the  Lord  of  all. 
Incarnate,  God  with  us,  Emmanuel. 


VII 

BETHLEHEM 

And  thou  Bethlehem,  in  the  land  of  Juda,  art  not  the  least 
among  the  princes-  of  Juda  :  for  out  of  thee  shall  come  a 
Governor  that  shall  rule  my  people  Israel.  —  Matthew, 
u:6. 

At  this  season  of  the  year  the  thoughts  of 
the  whole  Christian  world  turn  to  the  little  town 
of  Bethlehem,  in  that  far-off  Syrian  land  from 
which  the  light  shone  "which  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  world." '  There  had  been 
lights;  there  had  been  portents  ;  but  all  the  lights 
and  all  the  portents  lead  up  to  and  culminate  in 
this  one  true  light  in  Whom  was  life,  "  and  the 
life  was  the  light  of  men." ' 

It  is  only  a  few  months  ago  since  we  ap- 
proached it  with  reverent  feet,  —  a  little  town,  set 
on  its  olive-crowned  hill,  the  great  olive  trees 
growing  in  ordered  ranks,  rising  one  above  an- 
other up  the  terraced  hillside.  The  earth  is  red, 
with  streaks  of  crimson,  and  the  soft  gray-green 
of  the  ancient  olives  throws  purple  shadows  upon 

'  John,  1:9.  »  John,  i :  4. 


76  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

it  in  the  brilliancy  of  the  Syrian  sun.  From  far 
down  the  plain  one  can  see  it.  "  I  will  lift  up  mine 
eyes  unto  the  hills,"  King  David  wrote,  "from 
whence  cometh  my  help." '  One  rides  out  of 
Jerusalem  toward  the  south,  through  the  Valley 
of  Hinnom,  and  then  the  road  begins  to  ascend 
by  a  long,  gentle  slope. 

One  of  the  earliest  mentions  of  Bethlehem  is 
of  Jacob's  journey  to  it,  with  Rachel,  from  Bethel, 
when  Benjamin  was  born.  "And  Rachel  died, 
and  was  buried  in  the  way  to  Ephrath,  which  is 
Beth-lehem."*  Her  tomb  is  passed  close  to  the 
modern  road,  which  winds  up  and  up,  always  as- 
cending. It  was  early  springtime,  and  the  hus- 
bandmen had  been  trimming  the  olive  trees. 
Camels  laden  with  enormous  loads  of  the  soft 
gray  twigs,  looking  like  moving  haystacks,  with 
a  head  and  four  spindling  legs,  moved  slowly 
up  the  incline.  The  vine  was  putting  forth  her 
leaf,  and  the  bare  branches  of  the  twisted  fig  trees 
were  budding.  Higher  and  higher  we  rose,  al- 
ways approaching  the  town  perched  upon  its  hill- 
top like  a  mediaeval  fortress.  What  associations 
it  awoke ! 

The  inhabitants  of  Bethlehem,  we  are  told, 
have  always  been  people  of  beauty.  David  was 
*  Psalm  cxxi :  i,  •  Genesis,  xxxv  :  i6-zo. 


BETHLEHEM  77 

the  type  of  them  all,  — "  ruddy,  and  withal  of  a 
beautiful  countenance,  and  goodly  to  look  to." ' 
The  country  round  about  is  fruitful.  Bethlehem- 
Ephratah  is  the  Hebrew  term  expressive  of  the 
fertility  of  the  region.  One  must  remember  the 
wildness  of  the  Jordan  valley  and  the  great  de- 
serted plain  of  the  Dead  Sea,  to  appreciate  fully 
the  beauty  and  fertility  of  such  a  hill  as  the 
Hill  of  Bethlehem.  Mt.  Pisgah  from  beyond 
Jordan  commands  it;  Moses  could  have  looked 
from  that  height  to  this  hill.  Here  Benjamin  was 
born ;  and  this  is  the  city  of  Naomi,  to  which  she 
returned  when  Ruth  followed  her  mother-in-law, 
saying, "  Whither  thou  goest  I  will  go."  *  It  was 
in  this  gate  that,  in  fulfilment  of  the  Mosaic 
law,  Boaz,  her  kinsman,  offered  her  to  a  still 
nearer  kinsman,  and  upon  his  refusal  took  her 
himself  to  wife.  It  was  thus  that  she  became  the 
great-grandmother  of  David,  and  the  ancestress 
of  our  Blessed  Lord  Himself.'  In  this  town  was 
the  sepulchre  of  David ;  here  he  and  many  of  his 
descendants  found  their  last  resting-place.  It 
well  may  be  called  the  City  of  David. 

Bethlehem  has  always  been  looked  to  with 
veneration  as  the  dwelling-place  of  kings.  Micah 

*  I  Samuel,  xvi:  12.  *  Ruth,  i :  i6. 

3  Ruth,  iv  :  13-17. 


78  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

the  Prophet,  seven  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
wrote  the  passage  St.  Matthew  quotes :  "  But 
thou,  Bethlehem-Ephratah,  though  thou  be  little 
among  the  thousands  of  Judah,  yet  out  of  thee 
shall  he  come  forth  unto  me  that  is  to  be  ruler 
in  Israel ;  whose  goings  forth  have  been  from  of 
old,  from  everlasting.  .  .  .  And  he  shall  stand 
and  feed  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord,  in  the 
majesty  of  the  name  of  the  Lord  his  God ;  and 
they  shall  abide :  for  now  shall  he  be  great  unto 
the  ends  of  the  earth."  * 

We  climbed  slowly  up  the  winding  road  and 
entered  the  little  walled  city,  looking  like  a  medi- 
aeval Italian  town.  About  eight  thousand  people 
live  in  it,  in  square  solid  houses,  built  on  terraces, 
with  narrow  slippery  streets  running  steeply  up 
the  hillside.  At  the  eastern  end  of  the  town, 
close  to  the  entrance,  is  the  Church  of  the  Na- 
tivity. It  was  built  by  the  Crusaders  in  the  style 
of  their  own  home  churches,  with  long,  low  walls. 
With  the  three  convents  which  adjoin  it,  it 
makes  a  huge  pile  of  buildings,  like  a  fortress, 
forming  a  hollow  square,  the  grim  outer  walls 
facing  all  corners.  The  nave  of  this  great  church, 
now  bare  and  desolate,  is  the  basilica  built  by 
Constantine  in  330.  Baldwin  I  was  crowned 
*  Micah,  V  :  2-4. 


BETHLEHEM  79 

here,  and  Edward  IV  brought  English  oak  to 
renew  the  roof.  The  church  has  four  rows  of 
marble  columns,  each  a  single  stone  with  a  Co- 
rinthian capital.  On  some  of  the  shafts  are  cut 
the  shields  of  crusaders;  and  the  mosaics  on  the 
walls  were  executed  in  the  twelfth  century.  The 
nave  of  the  old  basilica  belongs  to  all  Christians; 
and  the  three  adjacent  convents  are  those  of  the 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Armenian  churches.  But  this 
great  building  serves  only  for  a  portal  to  the  holy 
of  holies,  —  as  the  entrance  to  the  shrine  to  which 
all  worshipers  come.  One  treads  with  reverence 
its  ancient  pavement,  back  of  the  choir,  and  then 
descends  a  long,  narrow  flight  of  steps  cut  in  the 
rock.  The  church  has  been  dark  compared  to 
the  outer  sunshine ;  but  here  real  darkness  reigns, 
lit  by  twinkling  lamps.  The  way  leads  down 
some  twenty  feet  below  the  choir  to  one  of  the 
subterranean  caverns  common  in  the  country. 
The  walls  have  been  mostly  covered  with  fres- 
coes and  decorations,  and  the  place  is  lighted 
with  perpetual  burning  lamps;  but  the  roof 
retains  its  natural  appearance,  and  the  cleavage 
of  the  rock  is  seen.  It  is  a  spacious  rock-cham- 
ber, some  thirty-three  feet  long,  and  eleven  feet 
wide,  and  at  its  very  end  there  is  a  tiny  recess 
opening  out  of  it, — a  little  side  alcove,  where 


8o  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

one  could  secure  absolute  privacy.  Here  the  sil- 
ver star  is  let  into  the  floor.  This  all  tradition 
points  to  as  the  place  over  which  the  heavenly- 
star  rested  when  the  Star  of  our  Life  had  his 
birth. 

It  is  very  quiet  and  serene  in  that  underground 
chamber;  the  few  visitors  who  come,  stand  or 
kneel  in  silent  adoration;  there  is  no  sound  of 
worship,  no  hymn  of  praise;  each  soul  in  its  own 
solitary  fashion  makes  its  own  obeisance.  And 
one  sees  how  natural  it  all  was.  The  story  says, 
"Because  there  was  no  room  for  them  in  the 
inn."  These  subterranean  caverns  are  common 
all  through  the  country.  You  will  remember 
how  David  was  in  hiding  in  one  of  them.  Would 
it  not  be  beautiful  to  think  that  it  might  be  this 
very  one  into  which  Saul  went,  "  when  he  came 
to  the  sheepcotes  by  the  way  where  was  a  cave,"  ' 
and  David  cut  off  the  skirt  of  his  garment  and 
showed  it  to  him  afterward,  in  token  that  he  had 
had  his  life  in  his  hands  ?  These  were  places 
which  would  very  easily  be  used  for  the  shelter 
of  cattle ;  this  one  probably  had  its  natural  en- 
trance, before  the  church  was  built  over  it,  and  in 
the  primitive  days  the  ox  and  the  ass  were  a  part 
of  a  man's  household.  You  will  remember  how 
*   I  Samael,  xxiv  :  3. 


BETHLEHEM  8i 

the  Prophet  Nathan  speaks  of  the  lamb  which  lay- 
in  the  poor  man's  bosom  "  and  was  unto  him  as 
a  daughter." '  Without  the  helpful  labor  of  the 
household  beasts  the  stony  soil  would  not  yield 
its  increase,  and  the  habitation  of  the  cattle  was 
of  concern  to  their  owners.  In  the  country,  peo- 
ple still  live  in  tents  close  to  their  animals,  and 
in  the  towns  and  villages,  the  houses  were  not 
of  any  great  dimensions  in  those  ancient  days, 
or,  in  Syria,  of  great  elegance. 

One  thinks  of  a  stable  in  our  more  civilized 
land  as  a  place  of  the  outcast ;  but  this  wonder- 
ful natural  cavern  was  warm  and  sheltered  and 
furnished  every  requirement  for  a  secluded 
and  restful  place.  Every  Christmas  season  the 
thoughts  of  all  Christian  people  turn  toward  this 
new  beginning  in  this  dim  and  unknown  spot, 
— unknown  then,  — perhaps  best  known  of  any 
place  in  all  the  Christian  world,  if  not  in  its  ac- 
tual physical  features,  yet  as  the  manger  in  which 
that  blessed  infant  was  laid  so  many  hundreds 
of  years  ago. 

A  little  distance  to  the  south  of  the  Church  of 

the  Nativity,  not  more  than  fifteen  minutes'  walk, 

is  the  shepherds'  field, — a  field  now  enclosed 

with  high  walls.  A  grotto  is  also  there,  where  the 

^  2  Samuel,  xii  :  3. 


82  A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

shepherds  were  supposed  to  have  been  resting 
that  wonderful  night  when  the  angel  appeared 
with  "good  tidings  of  great  joy."  And  one  looks 
from  its  mouth  toward  the  East,  from  out  of 
which  the  star  came.  That  also  is  a  holy  grotto, 
but  our  thoughts  go  back  to  the  grotto  at  Beth- 
lehem, where  there  are  still  more  traditions  which 
should  be  dear  to  the  Christian  heart.  Here  St. 
Jerome  lived  and  worked ;  here  he  made  the  fa- 
mous translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  Latin, — 
the  Vulgate,  as  it  is  called.  Here  he  gathered  his 
disciples  about  him  and  lived  his  life  in  the  very 
place  where  that  blessed  Life  began  on  earth. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  had  a  beautiful  myth 
about  the  sun.  In  the  morning  he  is  called  Har- 
machis;  at  mid-day,  in  his  strength,  he  is  Ra; 
at  evening  he  is  Tum,  who  is  slain  by  darkness. 
But  the  victory  of  Darkness  over  Light  is 
short-lived :  at  dawn  the  god  of  day  is  recreated 
and  shines  again  in  his  glory.  The  world  has  al- 
ways longed  for  light ;  "  more  light "  was  not  only 
Goethe's  dying  cry,  but  has  been  the  cry  of  every 
earnest  soul.  The  primal  Light,  the  uncreated 
Splendor,  has  lured  men  to  a  life-long  search. 
The  prophecy  of  the  fulfilment  of  that  hope 
runs  through  all  the  ancient  writings  of  the  world. 
"But  unto  you  that  fear  my  name  shall  the  sun 


BETHLEHEM  83 

ofRighteousness  arise  with  healing  in  his  wings." 
"  O  that  salvation  were  come  out  of  Zion,"  sings 
the  Psalmist.  "O  that  I  knew  where  I  might 
find  him,  that  I  might  come  even  to  his  seat !"  ' 
was  the  cry  of  the  writer  of  that  wonderful  poem 
we  call  the  book  of  Job,  thirty-five  hundred 
years  ago.  It  is  the  eternal  cry  of  the  soul,  and 
here  in  this  tiny  cavern,  in  the  warm  darkness 
of  the  shrouded  day,  "the  Word  was  made  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory, 
the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father, 
full  of  grace  and  truth." '  The  Divine  in  the  Hu- 
man, the  Human  in  the  Divine  1  The  power  of 
love  revealed  as  never  before,  "for  unto  us  is 
born  this  day,  in  the  city  of  David,  a  Saviour, 
which  is  Christ  the  Lord." 

Let  us  pray :  — 

O  Thou  who  art  Light,  and  the  Author  of 
Light,  eternal,  uncreated,  we  Thy  children  come 
to  Thee  to  rejoice  and  give  thanks  that  Thou  hast 
manifested  Thyself,  that  Thou  didst  send  Thy 
son  as  a  little  child.  We  open  our  hearts  to  re- 
ceive Him ;  may  He  be  born  in  us,  we  pray  Thee, 
—  not  in  a  far  country, —  not  in  ancient  time, — 
but  here  and  now  incarnate  Thy  Love  in  each 

»  Job,  xxiii :  3.  «  John,  1:14. 


84  A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

one  of  us.  May  we  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is:  and  as  we  come  with  kings  and 
shepherds,  with  pilgrims  and  children  to  sing 
Thy  praise,  may  it  mean  life  to  us, — fullness  of 
life  that  comes  from  Thee,  —  fullness  of  love  in 
pouring  out  our  hearts  before  Thee.  Accept  our 
offering  of  praise,  we  beseech  Thee,  for  Christ's 
sake.  Amen. 


JERICHO 


JERICHO 

This  plain  made  bright  with  streaks  of  crimson  clay 
And  sprinkled  o'er  with  grains  of  golden  sand  — 
The  vestige  of  a  long  forgotten  strand  — 

Once  saw  the  host  of  Israel  as  it  lay 

With  pikes  and  trumpets  in  war's  fierce  array. 
Now  in  the  grass  the  solemn  wild  storks  stand ; 
A  pensive  silence  broods  upon  the  land 

Unbroken  by  the  shout  which  won  that  day. 

Zacchaeus  lived  here,  who  desired  to  see 

When  Christ  came  down  the  Jordan  wilderness. 
And  one  born  blind  cried  out  exceedingly. 

I  too  am  blind,  my  Lord ;  O  give  me  sight,  — 
Illume  my  mind,  Thou  very  Light  of  Light ; 
I  cannot  let  Thee  go,  until  Thou  bless. 


VIII 
JERICHO 

So  the  people  shouted  when  the  priests  blew  with  the  trum- 
pets: and  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  people  heard  the  sound 
of  the  trumpet,  and  the  people  shouted  with  a  great  shout, 
that  the  wall  fell  down  flat.  So  that  the  people  went  up  into 
the  city,  every  man  straight  before  him,  and  they  took  the 
city.  — Joshua,  vi  :  20. 

Jericho,  the  city  of  the  plain, — Jericho,  the 
fragrant,  —  Jericho,  the  city  of  palm  trees, — 
these  all  are  names  which  her  lovers  delighted 
to  give  her.  It  lies  at  the  entrance  of  that  great 
ravine,  a  sharp  cation  cut  in  the  mountains  by 
some  vast  convulsion,  leading  from  the  plain  of 
Jordan  up  into  that  wilderness  in  which  our 
blessed  Lord  sought  solitude,  which  has  its  sum- 
mit in  the  mountains  about  Jerusalem.  This  is 
the  Valley  of  Achor,  the  vale  of  trouble.  The 
most  famous  of  the  traditions  of  Jericho  is  the 
falling  of  the  walls  when  the  host  of  Israel 
went  in  to  possess  the  land.  To  this  city  the 
spies  came,  and  were  let  down  in  a  basket  out- 
side the  walls  by  Rahab.  And  Joshua  burnt  it 
"with  fire  and  all  that  was  therein,"  and  saved 


8S  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

only  Rahab  and  all  her  father's  house,  "because 
she  hid  the  messengers  which  Joshua  sent  to  spy 
out  Jericho."  "  Cursed  be  the  man  before  the 
Lord  that  riseth  up  and  buildeth  this  city  Jeri- 
cho ;  he  shall  lay  the  foundation  thereof  in  his 
first  born,  and  in  his  youngest  son  shall  he  set 
up  the  gates  of  it."  '  But  in  spite  of  this  doom, 
five  hundred  years  later,  in  the  days  of  Ahab, 
"did  Hiel  the  Bethelite  build  Jericho,"  and 
incur  the  penalty.* 

It  was  to  the  new  Jericho,  not  yet  a  hundred 
years  old,  that  Elijah  and  his  servant  Elisha 
came  together. 

"And  the  sons  of  the  prophets  that  were  at 
Jericho  came  to  Elisha,  and  said  unto  him, 
Knowest  thou  that  the  Lord  will  take  away  thy 
master  from  thy  head  this  day?  And  he  an- 
swered. Yes,  I  know  it ;  hold  ye  your  peace."' 
It  was  to  Jericho  that  the  prophet  returned  after 
Elijah  had  been  taken  from  him,  and  here  he 
pretended  to  let  himself  be  comforted  by  the 
eager  search  of  the  fifty  strong  men,  sons  of  the 
prophets,  who  went  over  Jordan  to  search  for 
his  Master.  But  it  must  have  been  a  real  com- 
fort to  him  to  heal  the  waters  of  the  city.  Ac- 

*  Joshua,  vi :  25,  26.  '  i  Kings,  xvi :  34. 

3  2  Kings,  ii :  5. 


JERICHO  89 

cording  to  the  ancient  story  the  men  came  to 
him,  saying,  "The  situation  of  this  city  is  plea- 
sant as  my  lord  seeth :  but  the  water  is  naught, 
and  the  ground  barren."  Then  Elisha  had  a 
new  cruse  brought  to  him,  and  put  salt  in  it, 
and  cast  it  into  the  spring.  —  "Thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  he  cried,  "I  have  healed  these  waters; 
there  shall  not  be  from  thence  any  more  death 
or  barren  land."*  And  there  the  great  fountain 
is  to  this  day,  a  basin  catching  a  plenteous  stream 
of  pure  limpid  water,  which  gushes  from  the 
ground.  In  the  old  days  sugar-cane  grew  here, 
and  palm  trees  were  planted.  "  I  was  exalted  as 
a  rose  plant  in  Jericho,"  the  prophet  sings. — 
A  land  of  fruitfulness  and  plenty  it  must  have 
been. 

But  we  have  tenderer  association  with  the 
city.  "And  they  came  to  Jericho,"  we  are  told 
of  that  last  journey  to  celebrate  the  passover  in 
Jerusalem.  From  his  own  city  of  Capernaum  on 
the  Lake  of  Galilee,  Jesus  and  his  disciples  would 
very  probably  have  started  in  the  boat  of  Zebe- 
dee,  or  one  of  their  fisher  friends,  and  landed  at 
the  southern  end  of  the  lake.  Then  would  come 
the  wild  torrent  of  the  Jordan,  a  mountain  stream 
rushing  down  through  its  own  gorge  to  the  salt 
'  2  Kings,  ii :  19-22. 


90  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

sea  of  the  plain,  a  distance  of  sixty  miles,  during 
which  it  falls  six  hundred  feet.  Along  the  west- 
ern bank  of  this  stream  the  company  of  disciples 
would  journey,  walking  by  day,  and  resting  un- 
der the  stars  by  night, — for  we  must  remember 
it  was  literally  true  that  he  "had  not  where  to 
lay  his  head."  It  would  grow  warmer  as  they 
proceeded,  — an  almost  semi-tropical  vegetation, 
with  fig  trees,  and  olives,  clothing  the  spurs  of 
the  hills.  "  And  they  came  to  Jericho."  It  was 
here  that  blind  Bartimaeus  cried  so  much  the 
more,  when  they  told  him  to  hold  his  peace, 
"Thou  Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me ! "  *  Then 
came  one  of  the  contrasts  with  which  the  life  of 
Jesus  abounded.  He  saw  Zacchaeus  in  his  syca- 
more tree,  waiting  for  aglimpse  of  him,  and  called 
to  him  to  come  down,  "for  to-day  I  must  abide 
at  thy  house."  * 

In  the  time  of  the  Roman  Empire  Jericho  was 
a  famous  city.  H  erod  built  a  splendid  palace  there 
overlooking  the  Dead  Sea,  with  a  lovely  view 
of  Mt.  Pisgah.  It  was  a  city  of  such  importance 
that  Antony  gave  it  to  Cleopatra,  —  a  worthy 
present  for  a  queen. 

Full  of  such  remembrances,  with  our  Bibles 
for  guide-books,  one  lovely  spring  day  we  came 
*  Mark,  x  :  48.  *  Luke,  xix :  5. 


JERICHO  91 

to  the  ancient  town.  Mt.  Pisgah  shone  serene 
upon  us,  all  the  long  descent  from  Jerusalem. 
The  yellow  sands  of  the  great  plain  in  which  the 
sapphire  of  the  Dead  Sea  is  the  mystic  jewel 
stretched  about  us.  Tall  grasses  stood,  dry  and 
sere,  and  moved  gently  in  the  soft  air.  Close 
by,  a  great  white  stork  took  his  ease,  one  leg 
curled  up  under  his  wing,  as  with  an  indolent 
gaze  he  watched  our  approach.  He  hardly  raised 
himself  above  the  golden  rushes,  as  he  slowly 
flapped  his  great  wings  and  flew  to  a  little  dis- 
tance. Bands  of  pilgrims  were  returning  from  the 
Jordan,  carrying  their  shoes  in  their  hands ;  for 
is  not  this  sacred  ground?  It  was  on  this  very 
plain  that  the  Angel,  the  captain  of  the  Lord's 
host,  said  to  Joshua,  "  Loose  thy  shoe  from  off 
thy  foot,  for  the  place  whereon  thou  standest  is 
holy." '  Many  of  the  pilgrims  had  great  flowing 
white  garments  stretched  over  their  shoulders, 
drying  in  the  sun.  These  were  the  baptismal  robes 
in  which  they  had  been  immersed  in  the  waters 
of  Jordan,  which  would  become  their  shrouds. 
The  sun  was  sinking  low  in  the  western  sky. 
Lovely  purple  clouds  were  gathering  upon  the 
Mountains  of  Moab,  when  at  last  we  turned  to 
the  little  town,  with  its  low  square  houses,  a  tiny 
*  Joshua,  V  :  15. 


92  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

narrow  street  on  which  they  are  built,  with  one 
or  two  cross  streets,  comprising  the  whole  city. 
Herod's  castle  from  its  hill  in  the  distance  dom- 
inated it,  now  a  heap  of  scattered  stones.  The 
fountain  keeps  its  everlasting  freshness,  and 
gushes  forth  as  it  has  done  for  hundreds  of  years. 
It  is  a  little  way  from  the  modern  town,  —  the 
ancient  Jericho  must  have  been  far  larger.  Here 
the  women  come  with  their  water-jars,  —  the  fir- 
kins of  the  New  Testament,  —  the  same  sort  of 
jars  as  were  used  at  the  marriage  at  Cana. 

The  day  we  were  there,  and  the  night,  was  one 
full  of  beauty.  Pomegranates  and  oleanders  were 
beginning  to  bloom.  Our  rooms  at  the  comfort- 
able little  inn  faced  the  rising  sun.  Just  opposite 
us,  the  host  of  Israel  had  crossed  the  Jordan 
coming  from  the  east,  and  Elijah  crossed  it  from 
the  west.  John  the  Baptist  preached  the  King- 
dom of  God  close  by.  Here  our  Saviour  Him- 
self came.  It  is  not  one  of  the  most  sacred  places, 
but  a  place  full  of  association,  full  of  reposeful 
beauty,  full  of  charm.  And  the  two  incidents 
which  are  recorded  as  taking  place  here  embody 
the  whole  of  the  teaching  of  our  Lord.  It  was 
in  the  house  of  Zacchaeus,  according  to  St.  Luke, 
that  Jesus  added  the  parable  of  the  talents.  And 
it  was  here  that  He  declared  plainly  that  He 


THE   DEAD   SEA,   AND    RUIXS   OF    HEROD'S   CASTLE 


\^Lvrovr  street  on  whicl) 
■>r  rwo  cross  streets,  co rnj: 
Herod's  castle  from  its  hii 
inatcd  it,  now  a  heap  of  sr 
fountain    keeps  its 
gushes  forth  as  it  has  a 

It  is  a  little  way  from  t 

ancient  Jericho  must  have  been  far  larg 
the  women  come  with  their  water-jars, — the  fir- 
kins of  the  New  Testament,  —  the  same  sort  of 
jnr'?  ns  wcr»*  qc-'  •>    r^i'^  rr.Tif'-  ..    .--  C^nz. 

'I  .K  ^-T-  vv-  .,  was  one 

fu { t  of  to  I :  t      1    I n '  :  ranates  and  oleanders  wert 


us,  the  ]( 

coming  from  the  east,  and  Elijah  cross^ 
rhe  west.  John  the  Bn 
•  ^f  God  clr'-    ^•' 

iie.  It  is 
but  a  place- 
beauty,  full  oi 
^    ^  -re  recor 

olc  of  t!: 

in  the  house  of  Zacchceus,accor 


lt^^^mfs^>'    "wMfi 


JERICHO  93 

was  "  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was 
lost." ' 

And  may  we  not  take  comfort  in  the  persist- 
ence of  blind  Bartimaeus?  His  neighbors  told 
him  to  hold  his  peace;  they  rebuked  him  openly, 
and  he  cried  so  much  the  more.  "What  wilt 
thou  that  I  shall  do  unto  thee  ? "  Jesus  asked, 
when  He  had  stopped  the  whole  onward  press- 
ing crowd  which  opened  up  to  have  the  blind 
man  brought  to  Him.  And  the  man  had  his 
answer  ready,  —  no  vague,  general  blessing,  but 
one  specific  definite  thing :  "  Lord,  that  I  may 
receive  my  sight,'"  he  said.  Is  not  that  the  cry 
of  every  earnest  soul  ? 

Moses  from  Mt.  Pisgah  close  by  Jericho  had 
his  vision  of  the  promised  land.  The  blind  man 
had  the  answer  to  his  prayer:  "Thy  faith  hath 
saved  thee,"  the  blessed  voice  replied. 

Oh,  in  an  age  of  doubt  and  question,  —  an 
age  when  the  workings  of  God  are  seen  to  be 
in  orderly  sequences,  till  sometimes  natural  law 
is  put  in  the  very  place  of  God  Himself,  —  let 
us  pray  for  that  faith  which  goes  behind  order, 
behind  method,  to  the  very  heart  of  divinity ! 
"  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,"  Jesus  said  in 
this  very  city.  If  we  are  children  of  God,  surely 

*  Luke,  xix  :  lo.  *  Luke,  xviii :  41. 


94  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

He  Himself  must  long  to  fulfil  our  aspirations 
which  are  emanations  of  Himself! 

Let  us  pray :  — 

Lord  give  us  our  sight,  we  beseech  Thee. 
Thou  hast  placed  us  in  a  world  of  beauty  and 
of  wonder,  Thou  hast  given  us  all  things  richly 
to  enjoy.  But  beyond  all  the  externals,  O  Lord, 
beyond  the  joy  of  the  senses,  give  us  some 
blessed  vision  of  Thyself.  Come  to  each  of  us 
to-day,  at  this  very  hour,  and  abide  with  us,  as 
did  Thy  Son  in  that  ancient  city.  May  we  wel- 
come Thee  gladly,  opening  our  very  hearts  to 
receive  Thee.     Amen. 


THE  JORDAN  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA 


THE  JORDAN 

This  is  the  mystic  place,  this  turbid  stream 
Swift  flowing  toward  the  Salt  Sea  of  the  Plain 
Between  its  banks  of  rushes  and  of  cane; 

This  is  the  river  of  the  Prophet's  dream.  — 

From  Pisgah's  lofty  heights  he  saw  its  gleam, 
When  with  his  eager  dying  eyes  astrain 
He  looked  upon  the  Promised  Land  in  vain. 

And  this  flood  marked  its  eastern  verge  extreme. 

And  more,  for  here  was  the  Forerunner  sent, — 
The  voice  from  out  the  wilderness  :  *'  Prepare, 
Make  straight  a  highway  for  our  God,  repent !  " 

And  here  He  came ;  and  baptism  being  ended 
The  heavens  opened,  and  the  Dove  descended, 
O  humble  stream,  canst  thou  such  glory  bear  ? 


IX 

THE  JORDAN  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA 

These  waters  shall  come  thither :  for  they  shall  be  healed  ; 
and  everything  shall  live  whither  the  river  cometh. —  Ezekiel, 
xlvii :  9. 

Ezekiel  was  the  strong  as  his  name  signifies. 
He  was  of  a  priestly  family,  and  with  many 
others  was  taken  to  Babylon  in  the  captivity  of 
Israel.  There  he  lived,  about  six  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  and  there  he  warned,  and  de- 
nounced, and  scourged  the  people  with  his  terrible 
words  ;  and  then  came  the  actual  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  —  and  he  was  dumb.  He  might  well 
have  said,  "  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon  there  we 
sat  down,  yea  we  wept,  when  we  remembered 
Zion,"  though  that  hymn  is  supposed  to  have 
been  written  toward  the  end  of  the  captivity. 
"  Son  of  man,"  he  delighted  to  call  himself,  and 
from  his  grief  he  rose  to  consolation.  A  new 
country  he  saw  in  his  mind,  —  a  new  temple 
from  which  the  worship  of  Jehovah  should  be 
preached,  —  a  sanctuary  which  should  extend 
its  blessings,  not  only  to  the  Jews,  but  to  aliens 


98  A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

who  should  be  born  in  the  country,  and  become 
worshipers  of  the  God  of  Israel.  He  planned  a 
state  in  which  religion  was  to  be  honored;  he 
set  bounds  to  the  lands  of  the  temple;  the  whole 
ritual  of  service  he  delighted  to  elaborate.  So 
it  would  be  when  the  captivity  was  ended,  he 
fondly  pictured.  And  from  the  sanctuary  he  saw 
a  great  river  flowing,  ankle-deep,  and  knee-deep, 
and  to  the  loins,  and  then  a  mighty  river  which 
could  not  be  passed  over,  rushing  toward  that 
salt  sea  of  the  plain,  that  desert  place  in  the  fer- 
tile land,  —  so  bare,  so  arid,  that  no  living  plant 
could  grow  there,  and  no  fish  live  in  its  waters. 
"And  by  the  river  upon  the  bank  thereof,  on 
this  side  and  on  that  side  shall  grow  all  trees  for 
meat,  whose  leaf  shall  not  fade,  neither  shall  the 
fruit  thereof  be  consumed."  * 

It  is  as  if  the  prophet  is  describing  a  new  Jor- 
dan, —  not  a  Jordan  lost  in  the  desert,  but  one 
which  shall  bring  healing  to  the  bitter  waters. 
The  river  itself,  aside  from  its  sacred  associations, 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  world.  It 
begins  as  a  mountain  stream,  fed  from  the  snows 
of  Hermon,  and,  descending  to  a  swampy  plain 
between  the  Jordan  Hills  and  the  Mountains  of 
Galilee,  forms  the  Waters  of  Merom.  From  this 
'  Ezekiel,  xlvii :  1 2. 


<r^^^^^HH|H^^B 

^^^^^Bfc^^^ii  _^ - 

''is^^B  i^bI  ^^^^^B^k 

I^^B                '-^S 

4i  ^^^B  hmh  ^^I  ^H^^P^^^^^^^H 

■ ..  ^ 

1^. 

i 

THE   DRAGOMAN 


JORDAN  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  99 

lake  about  ten  miles  north  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
it  emerges  to  lose  itself,  a  muddy  stream,  in  those 
crystal  depths.  It  is  only  sixty  miles  in  the 
straight  line  it  has  to  run  from  the  Sea  of  Gali- 
lee to  the  Dead  Sea,  where  it  is  lost  forever;  but 
in  those  sixty  miles  it  falls  six  hundred  feet, 
and  twists  and  turns,  till  Lieutenant  Lynch,  in 
following  its  windings,  sailed  two  hundred  miles. 
The  Sacramento  in  California — that  enormous 
stream  —  is  the  only  other  river  which  makes 
so  great  a  descent  in  so  short  a  distance. 

The  road  winds  on  over  the  scarlet  sands,  — 
the  most  brilliant  sands,  perhaps,  in  the  whole 
world,  streaked  with  crimson  and  gold,  reflect- 
ing the  sun  in  a  dazzling  way,  painful  to  the  eyes. 
At  the  edge  of  the  plain  are  the  low  bushes  and 
trees  which  mark  a  streak  of  greenness  where  the 
Jordan  enters  the  Salt  Sea.  All  is  silent  and  des- 
olate. Rushes  grow  upon  the  plain,  and  low 
bushes  around  which  swarms  of  tiny  insects  move 
in  clouds.  A  great  stork  stands  motionless  upon 
the  crimson  clay ;  a  silence  that  can  be  felt  broods 
over  the  deserted  plain ;  and  the  sun  pours  down 
his  fervent  rays.  The  heat  is  overpowering.  Bare, 
arid,  pitiless,  the  sands  stretch  to  the  borders  of 
the  turquoise  water.  I  dipped  my  hand  into  it, 
and  tasted  the  drops.  It  is  indescribably  bitter ; 


loo        A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

an  immense  amount  of  solid  matter  is  held  in 
solution,  we  are  told.  The  very  wavelets  upon  the 
surface  seem  to  move  sluggishly,  as  if  from  the 
heaviness  of  the  water.  It  is  all  weird,  and  un- 
natural ;  a  sea  of  death  and  not  of  life. 

It  was  this  sea  which  the  prophet  saw  changed 
by  the  river  flowing  from  the  sanctuary.  Its 
waters  were  healed ;  fish  abounded,  and  trees  with 
fruit  were  to  grow  beside  it.  The  valley  of  deso- 
lation was  to  become  habitable  ground. 

In  reading  this  ancient  vision,  one  cannot  but 
be  struck  with  the  likeness  it  bears  to  St.  John's 
spiritual  city.  The  holy  stream  is  there,  the  river 
of  the  water  of  life.  How  precious  water  is  in 
those  Eastern  countries,  we  can  hardly  realize. 
Nazareth  has  a  single  fountain  for  the  whole  city; 
the  wells  were  often  the  scenes  of  fierce  conflicts, 
as  men  fought  for  possession  of  them.  And  water 
is  the  literal  life-giver,  the  nourisher  of  all  vege- 
tation, the  necessity  of  all  living  creatures.  St. 
John  has  trees  bearing  all  manner  of  fruits,  whose 
leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  Eze- 
kiel  says  quite  literally,  "  whose  leaves  are  for 
medicine,"  for  the  tinctures,  and  elixirs,  and  sim- 
ple herb  teas  with  which  primitive  medicine 
abounds. 

Both  the  older  and  the  later  seer,  in  language 


JORDAN  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  loi 

of  great  beauty,  look,  forward, — forward  to  a  new 
and  better  time.  Ezekiel  speaks  of  actual  facts. 
There  is  the  desert;  there  is  the  Dead  Sea;  and 
his  only  possible  remedy  for  this  blot  upon  his 
beloved  country,  he  conceived  to  be  in  a  stream 
issuing  from  the  Temple  of  God  Himself,  from 
the  very  sanctuary  of  Jehovah.  The  physical  ful- 
filment of  his  vision  has  not  come,  but  may  we 
not  get  a  hint  from  the  beauty  of  that  dream  as 
to  a  spiritual  reality  ?  Society  has  its  Dead  Seas, 
— the  world  is  full  of  barren  and  waste  places. 
Where  there  should  be  abundance  and  produc- 
tion, too  often  is  only  stagnation. 

We  see  it  in  our  own  country.  Too  often  pub- 
lic opinion  is  indifferent  as  to  great  evils,  too 
often  men  are  treated  with  contempt  and  neg- 
lect. Whole  classes  of  people  —  and  shame  to 
us  that  there  should  be  classes  —  are  oppressed. 
Life  becomes  sordid,  crushing  poverty  blights, 
and  men  live  in  desert  places  of  soul  and 
body. 

How  is  a  change  to  come }  How  is  a  truer  life 
to  be  begun?  Is  it  not  by  new  life  coming  to 
these  desert  places  ?  Is  it  not  by  the  refreshing 
river,  which  comes  from  the  very  sanctuary  of 
God  ?  And  what  is  this  river  but  the  life  of  our 
youth, —  of  our  young  men  and  maidens,  who 


I02        A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

go  out  from  the  places  of  learning,  where  they 
have  been  nourished  not  on  the  dry  bones  of 
knowledge,  but  on  the  very  bread  of  life,  that 
they  too  may  spread  life,  that  they  too  may  bring 
refreshing?  You  are  a  part  of  this  life-giving 
stream.  You  are  to  bring  healing  to  the  bitter 
waters  of  strife.  You  are  to  make  the  desert  blos- 
som as  the  rose,  because  on  your  heads  are  the 
blessings  of  unnumbered  years,  because  you  is- 
sue forth  intent  on  newness  of  Life,  because  you 
come  from  the  very  sanctuary  of  God. 

All  far-seeing  spirits,  all  men  who  have  moved 
the  world,  have  been  consoled  with  deep  and 
holy  visions  of  things  to  come.  There  is  a  noble 
dissatisfaction,  an  undying  quest  of  the  soul. 
What  a  moment  that  was  when  Isaiah  in  rapt 
ecstasy  saw  the  seraphims,  with  wings  covering 
their  faces,  and  crying  :  — 

*'  Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord  of  hosts  : 
The  whole  earth  is  fvill  of  his  glory." 

It  is  the  pure  in  heart  who  shall  see  God.  Un- 
til some  intimation  of  the  blessedness  of  that  sight 
is  granted  us  we  do  not  know  what  life  may  be. 
And  every  soul  before  me  must  have  had  some 
such  intimation,  —  dimly  apprehended  it  may 
be,  or  for  a  momentary  glimpse,  —  but  some 


JORDAN  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  103 

knowledge  of  Divine  life  beyond  and  above,  and 
yet  including  us,  we  may  all  have.  On  the  wings 
of  music  it  comes  to  us,  that  art  which  angels 
use,  in  which  worship  finds  its  highest  expres- 
sion :  — 

**HoIy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  of  hosts  : 
Heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  the  majesty  of  thy  glory." 

It  is  the  New  Jerusalem  we  seek,  —  the  new 
heaven  and  the  new  earth  ;  and  heaven  here  and 
now  on  earth  is  our  special  business.  If  we  can 
be  a  part  of  that  blessed  river  flowing  from  the 
sanctuary  of  God,  if  we  can  be  included  in  that 
life-giving  stream,  and  do  its  renewing  work  in 
a  waiting  world,  then  indeed  shall  we  be  blessed, 
and  our  lives  be  a  "  pure  river  of  the  water  of 
life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out  of  the  throne 
of  God,  and  of  the  Lamb." 

Let  us  pray  :  — 

Our  Heavenly  Father,  send  Thy  life-giving 
flood  to  course  through  and  through  our  hearts, 
we  beseech  Thee.  Thou  who  dost  turn  the  dry 
places  into  a  standing  water,  send  Thy  river  of  re- 
freshing to  every  barren  soul,  to  quicken  and 
revive  that  it  may  bear  fruit  abundantly.  Thou 
alone  dost  know  the  arid  places  of  our  hearts ; 


I04        A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

Thou  alone  canst  penetrate  the  wilderness  of 
conflicting  desires  and  clamoring  thoughts.  Come 
with  Thy  healing  streams,  dear  Lord,  to  cleanse 
and  to  purify.  Establish  our  souls,  we  pray  Thee, 
that  we  may  be  wells  of  water  springing  up  into 
everlasting  life.  Amen. 


THE  WILDERNESS 


THE   WILDERNESS 

Up  from  the  Jordan  straight  His  way  He  took 
To  that  lone  wilderness,  where  rocks  are  hurled. 
And  strewn,  and  piled,  —  as  if  the  ancient  world 

In  strong  convulsion  seethed  and  writhed  and  shook, 

Which  heaved  the  valleys  up,  and  sunk  each  brook. 
And  flung  the  molten  rock  like  ribbons  curled 
In  twists  of  gray  around  the  mountains  whirled  :  — 

A  grim  land,  of  a  fierce,  forbidding  look. 

The  wild  beasts  haunt  its  barren  stony  heights. 
And  wilder  visions  came  to  tempt  Him  there ; 
For  forty  days  and  forty  weary  nights, 

Alone  He  faced  His  mortal  self  and  sin. 
Chaos  without,  and  chaos  reigned  within. 
Subdued  and  conquered  by  the  might  of  prayer. 


X 

THE   WILDERNESS 

And  Jesus  being  full  of  the  Holy  Qhost  returned  from  Jor- 
dan, and  was  led  by  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness.  —  Luke, 
iv  :  I. 

We  are  just  entering  upon  one  of  the  most 
holy  seasons  of  the  year,  a  season  which  by  con- 
sent of  many  Christian  centuries  has  been  set 
apart  as  a  time  of  devout  contemplation,  of  peni- 
tence, of  prayer.  It  is  a  time  of  preparation,  a 
time  which  has  its  logical  fulfilment  in  Eas- 
ter joy,  though  in  reaUty  the  forty  days  in  the 
wilderness  and  the  day  of  Resurrection  were 
separated  by  three  years  of  full  and  crowded 
life. 

Let  me  try  to  take  you  to  the  actual  scene  of 
the  fasting,  as  it  appears  in  its  physical  aspects 
at  the  present  time. 

The  Jordan,  as  you  know,  is  a  little  river,  not 
so  wide  or  so  fine  a  stream  as  the  Charles,  hardly 
larger  than  our  brook  as  it  issues  from  the  lake. 
The  country  is  all  small.  The  journeys  of  our 
Lord  were  measured  by  days*  walks,  and  those 


io8        A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

blessed  feet  trod  the  whole  length  of  the  land, 
following  the  Jordan  from  its  birth  on  the 
slopes  of  Mt.  Hermon  to  its  end  in  the  Dead 
Sea. 

Just  opposite  Jericho,  a  few  miles  from  the 
Salt  Sea  of  the  Plain,  is  the  traditional  place  of 
baptism.  The  river  bends,  making  a  broad  sweep 
between  its  reedy  banks,  with  the  low  shrubs  and 
bushes  overhanging  its  muddy  waters.  The  west- 
ern shore  is  trodden  into  holes  and  hollows  by 
pilgrim  feet,  as  they  rush  to  the  sacred  stream. 
Here  it  was  that  Elijah  wrapped  his  mantle  about 
his  staff  and  smote  the  waters,  as  he  passed  over 
on  that  last  journey.'  Here  it  was  that  the  ark 
of  the  Lord  was  carried  over  when  the  Israelites 
went  in  to  possess  the  land;  "in  the  east  border 
of  Jericho."*  And  here  it  was  that  John  the 
Baptist  came  preaching  to  all  the  world,  "  Re- 
pent, Repent ! "  "I  have  need  to  be  baptized 
of  thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me?"  he  exclaimed 
when  Jesus  came  to  him.  "Suffer  it  to  be  so 
now,"  He  replied ;  and  as  He  came  up  out  of 
the  water  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Dove 
descended.^  Did  that  outward  act  of  devotion 
crystallize  the  sense  of  His  mission  which  had 

*  2  Kings,  ii:8.  »  Joshua,  iv  :  19. 

3  Matthew,  iii  :  15,  16. 


THE  WILDERNESS  109 

been  growing  upon  Jesus  in  the  quiet  years  in 
Galilee  ?  It  was  after  the  Voice  had  spoken,  after 
the  Dove  had  descended,  that  we  are  told, — 
"immediately  the  spirit  driveth  him  into  the 
wilderness."  '  And  what  a  wilderness  that  is !  The 
whole  of  the  depressed  country  of  Syria,  that 
part  lying  below  the  sea-level,  has  something 
weird  and  uncanny  about  it.  There  has  so  evi- 
dently been  a  great  convulsion  of  nature.  The 
mountains,  seamed  with  twisted  masses  of  ashen- 
hued  rock,  are  grim  and  fantastic  in  form.  Red 
clay  lies  in  streaks  close  beside  the  cold  gray 
stone ;  short,  stubbly  grass,  dry  and  hard,  grows 
scantily  upon  the  barren  soil.  The  brook  Cherith 
cuts  its  way  through  a  mighty  gorge,  winding 
over  and  creeping  around  masses  of  stone  and 
huge  boulders.  Caves  abound,  —  black  sinister 
holes  leading  into  the  mountain,  the  abode  of 
wild  beasts,  or  still  wilder  men.  This  is  that 
valley  of  Achor, — that  is,  the  valley  of  trouble,  — 
into  which  Joshua  took  the  man  who  had 
"wrought  folly  in  Israel "  by  retaining  some  of 
the  spoils  of  the  fallen  city  of  Jericho,  and  stoned 
him  and  all  his  household.  It  is  so  terrible  a 
place  that  when  the  prophet  Hosea  wants  to  give 
the  strongest  image  of  blessing,  he  declares  the 

'   Mark,  i :  12. 


no        A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

Lord  will  give  Israel  "the  Valley  of  Achor  for 
a  door  of  hope." 

Even  after  the  winter  rains  there  is  little  water 
in  the  brook,  and  the  vegetation  is  stunted  and 
starved.  While  the  plain  is  gay  with  flowers, 
only  the  thorn  and  the  prickly  cactus  grow  in 
this  arid  soil.  The  sun  beats  into  this  crevice 
in  the  crust  of  the  earth  with  tropical  vehe- 
mence ;  the  whole  gorge  has  a  sinister  and  ter- 
rible aspect. 

It  was  into  this  desolate  waste  that  our  Saviour 
retreated,  and  for  forty  days  and  nights  was  away 
from  human  companionship.  The  Evangelists 
summarize  the  temptations  which  assailed  Him 
there, —  the  threefold  temptation  to  test  His 
whole  being,  body,  mind,  and  spirit.  He  hun- 
gered, we  read.  There  was  the  cry  of  the  physical, 
—  the  need  of  the  body;  to  which  He  replied, 
"  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone."  Then 
came  the  temptation  of  ambition,  —  the  keen 
strong  mind,  which  could  "see  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world  at  a  glance,"  must  have  rejoiced  in 
the  possibility  of  ruling  them,  but  did  not  waver 
for  an  instant. — "Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan," 
He  cried.  And  then  came  the  test  of  the  soul, 
put  in  the  most  crafty  way.  Those  days  had 
brought  illumination  !  The  Voice  at  the  baptism 


Si/ti'       »3  • 


THE   HILL   OF    BLOOD 


or 


r:  brook,  an:. 

starved.   While  the 

•1     t-n.  1-;        ' 

.».i^     ^.'i^l     :iOi;.         i   ..-     - — -^.  ,       ..-  — 

in  the  crust  of  the  earth  with  tro 
ce;  the  whole  gorge  has  a  sinisi 


>panionship.    The 

^ered,  we  read.  There  was  the  cry  of  t , 

.of  an. 
?rrong  mind,  which  '■  see  the 


iirn^  if\      I;.     I  tiii    -^Tin 


ricd.  And  then  came  the  test 
in  the 


THE  WILDERNESS  m 

had  declared,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son."  "  If 
thou  be  the  son  of  God,  cast  thyself  down  from 
hence,"  came  the  suggestion.  The  body,  the 
mind,  and  the  spirit  were  tried  and  tested.  Just 
how  these  temptations  appealed  to  Him,  we  have 
only  the  hint  and  suggestion.  What  those  long 
days  of  solitude  meant,  what  those  nights  of 
prayer  betokened,  we  know  from  the  after  years 
of  His  blessed  ministry.  From  that  time  of  isola- 
tion, from  that  time  of  absolute  seclusion.  He 
returned  "  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit,"  '  to  face 
the  world. 

We  talk  of  the  happiness  of  finding  ourselves. 
Who  that  has  lived  at  all  has  not  had  moments 
of  blessed  illumination,  when  in  a  flash  a  reve- 
lation has  come,  and  we  see  relations,  and  realize 
conditions  as  never  before  ?  This  quiet  Lenten 
season  should  bring  us  some  such  moments, — 
should  have  for  each  one  of  us  some  of  the  fruits 
of  solitude.  We  are  each  alone  in  the  world, — 
as  alone  as  if  no  other  person  existed.  In  the 
last  analysis  there  is  only  God  and  one's  self. 
Do  not  be  afraid  to  realize  this.  No  soul  was 
ever  exactly  like  ours  before,  or  yet  to  be.  It 
is  by  acknowledging  this  great  and  funda- 
mental truth  that  power  alone  is  attained.  The 
«  Luke,  iv  :  1-14. 


112         A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

old  discipline  of  fasting,  to  use  the  ancient  words 
"mortified  the  flesh."  We  may  think  we  are 
past  that  elementary  method,  but  it  is  good  dis- 
cipline. Anything  which  we  do  from  a  sense  of 
duty,  like  the  exercise  of  any  power,  strength- 
ens that  sense.  To  forego  some  small  pleasure 
for  forty  days  for  the  sake  of  exercising  one's 
self  in  sacrifice,  not  for  the  sake  of  any  reward, 
or  on  the  basis  of  accumulating  credit  in  the 
celestial  accounts,  is  a  good  exercise.  People  will 
say  that  life  is  full  of  necessary  sacrifice, — why 
therefore  make  those  that  are  not  required?  But 
for  that  very  reason  it  is  well  to  train  the  will,  to 
prove  to  ourselves  that  we  have  command  over 
the  body  with  its  constant  demands.  It  is  good 
to  use  hardness  towards  one's  self.  And  at  this 
season,  when  so  many  devout  souls  are  turning 
afresh  toward  the  Inner  Light,  it  should  be  easy 
and  joyful  for  each  one  of  us  to  turn  after  our 
own  fashion,  —  not  doing  our  alms  before  men 
to  be  seen  of  them,  remembering  our  Lord's  in- 
junction, —  "  But  thou,  when  thou  fastest,  anoint 
thine  head,  and  wash  thy  face,  that  thou  appear 
not  unto  men  to  fast,  but  unto  thy  Father  which 
is  in  secret." 

Here  in  this  busy  life  we  cannot  lay  aside  the 
daily  round  of  duty,  —  that  would  be  "to  be 


THE  WILDERNESS  113 

of  a  sad  countenance,"  and  "appear  unto  men 
to  fast."  But  we  can  live  our  days  with  an  ever- 
growing sense  of  living  them  with  our  blessed 
Lord.  He  had  rocks  and  stones  for  His  bed, — 
a  cave  sheltered  Him  from  the  pitiless  sun  by 
day  and  the  chilling  wind  by  night.  All  the 
externals  are  different,  but  we  can  enter  into 
something  of  His  Spirit.  As  with  devout  im- 
agination we  follow  those  days  of  testing,  of 
temptation  in  the  Wilderness,  we  may  learn  to 
know  ourselves,  we  may  find  our  places  in  His 
Kingdom.  The  Lenten  season  should  mean  that 
to  us.  We  can  each  take  a  few  moments  every 
day  for  the  contemplation  of  divine  things.  It 
is  a  season  of  birth  and  of  promise.  Already  the 
springtime  radiance  is  in  the  air, — and  from 
such  a  season  of  devout  thought  the  Day  spring 
from  on  High  will  have  its  birth  in  each  hum- 
ble heart. 

Let  us  pray :  — 

Lord,  we  would  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Thy 
blessed  Son.  Thou  knowest  how  the  things  of 
this  world  appeal  to  us.  Thou  knowest  the  cry 
of  our  physical  frames  for  ease,  for  comfort. 
Thou  knowest  the  call  of  ambition,  which  falsely 
bids  us  stoop  to  gain  our  ends.    Lord,  all  our 


114        A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

ends  are  in  Thee.  May  we  undertake  nothing 
in  which  we  cannot  ask  Thy  companionship,  no- 
thing that  we  cannot  offer  to  Thee.  As  we  think 
of  that  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  may  we  rise 
above  ourselves,  and  share  with  our  blessed  Re- 
deemer His  fast,  that  we  may  also  be  prepared 
for  angels  to  minister  to  us.   Amen. 


JERUSALEM  —  THE  LAMENT 


THE  LAMENT 

The  long  ascent  was  ended,  evening  shed 

Its  softest  light,  and  from  Mount  Olive's  brow 
The  holy  city  stood  before  Him  j  how 

Fair,  with  temple  crowned  and  garlanded 

With  massive  walls.  The  sacrifice  is  led 
Not  only  in  the  days  of  Abraham's  vow 
To  Mount  Moriah,  but  comes  here  and  now 

Upon  the  ass's  colt  with  garments  spread. 
*' Jerusalem,"  the  tender  voice  laments, 

"That  stonest  those  that  come  to  thy  release, 
The  slaughter  of  the  Holy  innocents, 

The  blood  of  martyrs  make  thy  diadem ; 
If  thou  hadst  known,  e'en  thou,  Jerusalem, 
The  precious  things  belonging  to  thy  peace." 


XI 
JERUSALEM  — THE  LAMENT 

And  when  he  was  come  near  he  beheld  the  city  and  wept 
over  it,  saying.  If  thou  hadst  known,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this 
thy  day,  the  things  which  belong  unto  thy  peace!  —  Luke, 
xix  :  41,  42. 

The  long,  hard  day's  climb  up  from  the  plain 
of  Jericho  was  ended.  The  morning  blessing  of 
blind  Bartimaeus,  rejoicing  in  his  sight,  was  al- 
ready a  thing  of  the  past.  The  way  stretched  be- 
hind, bare  and  barren,  over  red-clay  paths,  with 
scanty  grass,  dry  and  sear,  and  bright  spring  flow- 
ers intermingled.  Black  ravens  silently  sailed  the 
mid-air,  ready  to  descend  upon  any  sheep  lost 
in  the  deep  ravines  of  the  bleak  slope.  The  sun 
sank  toward  the  west,  still  shining  upon  Mt. 
Pisgah,  which  seemed  to  rise  as  the  little  com- 
pany of  travelers  rose  on  the  mountain  slope  to- 
ward Jerusalem.  The  plain  of  Jericho  and  the 
Dead  Sea  faded  into  purple  haze.  Jesus  went  be- 
fore them,  we  read,  "and  they  were  amazed  ;  and 
as  they  followed  they  were  afraid.  And  he  took 
again  the  twelve  and  began  to  tell  them  what 


ii8        A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

things  should  happen  unto  him."'  They  were 
passing  through  the  scenes  of  his  active  minis- 
try. There  by  the  Jordan  John  the  Baptist's 
voice  had  sounded  and  the  Dove  descended.  He 
had  lodged  in  Jericho,  at  the  foot  of  that  terri- 
ble wilderness  of  the  Temptation.  "  To-day  I 
must  abide  at  thy  house,"  He  had  said  to  Zac- 
chasus  in  his  sycamore  tree.^  Up  and  up  the  path 
winds, — a  path  still  infested  with  thieves,  so  that 
the  modern  traveler  has  a  mounted  guard.  This 
was  the  gorge  in  which  Jesus  laid  the  scene  of 
the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan, — a  wild  canon 
with  soil  of  crimson  clay  around  the  black  jagged 
rocks.  A  steep  and  rough  way,  a  weary  day's 
journey. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  day  Bethany  is  passed, 
the  village  of  Martha  and  Mary.  Here  Lazarus 
lived,  and  here  Jesus  had  given  some  foretaste 
of  His  own  resurrection.  From  here  St.  Luke 
says  He  sent  on  the  disciples  for  the  ass  upon 
which  to  finish  His  journey,  that  it  might  be  ful- 
filled which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet,  "Behold 
thy  king  cometh  unto  thee :  he  is  just,  and  hav- 
ing salvation  ;  lowly,  and  riding  upon  an  ass,  and 
upon  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass."^  It  was  the  one 
moment  of  triumph  in  all  those  full  and  crowded 

'   Mark,  X  :  32.         *  Luke,  xix  :  5.         3  Zech.  ix  :  9. 


THE    MOSQUE   OF  OMAR 
On  Mount  Moriah,  the  Site  of  the  Temple 


JERUSALEM —  THE   LAMENT     119 

years.  "The  whole  multitude  of  the  disciples  be- 
gan to  rejoice  and  praise  God.  .  .  .  Blessed  be  the 
King  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord :  peace 
in  heaven,  and  glory  in  the  highest." '  And  yet 
in  the  midst  of  this  rejoicing,  which  must  have 
touched  His  heart,  "when  he  was  come  near  he 
beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it."  There  was 
the  Holy  of  Holies,  —  the  great  temple  crown- 
ing the  top  of  Mt.  Moriah,  built  over  the  place 
where  Abraham  took  his  son  Isaac  "  into  the 
land  of  Moriah,"  to  offer  him  "  upon  one  of  the 
mountains  which  I  will  tell  thee  of,"  the  ancient 
chronicle  says.'  On  the  bare  rock  itself,  which 
formed  and  still  forms  the  central  portion  of  the 
floor  of  the  temple,  behind  the  secluding  veil 
was  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  with  the  tables  of 
the  law,  and  the  books  of  Moses.  All  that  was 
most  sacred  to  the  devout  Jew  was  within  the 
walls  of  that  holy  temple.  It  dominated  the  city, 
it  was  the  culmination  of  all  the  glory  of  the 
world.  Here  Jesus  Himself  was  taken  as  a  tiny 
infant,  and  the  aged  Simeon  blessed  Him.  Here 
as  a  lad  He  was  found,  "sitting  in  the  midst  of 
the  doctors,  both  hearing  them,  and  asking  them 
questions." '  To  it  flocked  the  devout  of  all  coun- 

»  Luke,  xix  :  37,  38.  *  Genesis,  xxii :  2. 

3  Luke,  ii  :  46. 


I20        A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

tries.  A  list  of  fifteen  nationalities  is  given  in 
the  book  of  Acts,  of  those  who  came  hither,  to 
learn  of  the  Jewish  religion,  to  study  the  won- 
derful history,  to  worship  the  God  of  Abraham. 
From  the  slopes  of  Mt.  OHvet  the  city  rises  built 
upon  its  hills, —  now  looking  like  a  mediaeval 
citadel  with  its  massive  walls  and  arched  gate- 
way. "  Beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of  the 
whole  earth,  is  Mt.  Zion,  the  city  of  the  great 
king."  But  as  Jesus  came  in  sight  of  it,  that 
spring  evening  so  many  years  ago.  He  wept  over 
it.  "If  thou  hadst  known,  even  thou  at  least  in 
this  thy  day,  the  things  which  belong  unto  thy 
peace!"  It  was  the  goal  of  His  final  journey,  the 
culmination  of  His  Hfe  of  service.  We  are  told 
that  when  He  was  twelve  years  old  He  was  taken 
up  to  the  feast,  and  for  the  first  time  took  the 
way  from  Nazareth  in  the  north  down  the  Jor- 
dan valley,  and  up  the  steep  hills  to  Jerusalem. 
It  is  a  distance  of  less  than  a  hundred  miles.  A 
week's  walking  journey,  even  with  children  in 
the  party,  would  easily  accomplish  it.  And  here 
in  the  height  and  maturity  of  His  powers  He  had 
made  the  journey  for  the  last  time,  and  beheld 
the  city  as  a  whole,  stopping  to  contemplate  it, 
before  He  entered  it  to  be  lost  in  its  maze  of 
tiny  thoroughfares,  and  throngs  of  eager  people. 


THE   WALL   OF   WAILING 


JERUSALEM  — THE  LAMENT     121 

"If  thou  hadst  known  the  things  which  belong 
unto  thy  peace  ! " 

Archaeologists  tell  us  that  the  Jerusalem  of 
the  time  of  Christ  is  some  twenty  or  thirty  feet 
below  the  surface  of  the  ground.  They  are  find- 
ing the  ancient  pavements,  deep  hidden  in  the 
earth.  Two  or  three  times  has  the  city  been  ab- 
solutely overthrown,  not  "one  stone  left  upon 
another"  of  its  buildings.  Solomon's  Temple 
stood  on  the  very  summit  of  the  mountain.  No- 
thing of  that  is  left.  The  splendid  dome  of  the 
mosque  which  has  taken  its  place  crowns  the 
"  dome  of  the  rock,"  a  portion  of  the  original 
summit  some  sixty  feet  long  by  forty  feet  wide, 
which  is  walled  in,  directly  beneath  the  massive 
vaulting.  This  is  the  very  summit  of  Mt.  Mo- 
riah,  regarded  by  both  Jewish  and  Moslem  tra- 
dition as  the  foundation  stone  of  the  world.  This 
is  where  Abraham  brought  Isaac  for  sacrifice. 
This  is  one  of  the  places  unchanged  in  all  the 
centuries,  a  bit  of  everlasting  rock.  The  splendid 
dome  above  it  rises  to  a  height  of  nearly  a  hundred 
feet,  and  was  built  in  the  seventh  century.  Saladin 
restored  it  in  1 1 89.  Some  of  the  pillars  which  sup- 
port it  are  of  the  fourth  century,  and  were  taken 
from  Christian  churches.  Solomon's  Temple  has 
long  been  gone, —  not  one  stone  was  left  upon 


122         A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

another ;  but  this  fine  building,  rich  in  mosaics 
and  Eastern  color,  shows  the  magnificence  of  its 
site.  As  the  temple  was  built  on  the  top  of  a 
mountain  there  was  not  much  level  space  for  it, 
and  so  a  great  terrace  was  made,  a  stone-paved 
court  stretching  far  out  over  the  natural  contour 
of  the  hill.  This  terrace  is  supported  by  stones, 

—  enormous  blocks  about  fifteen  feet  long,  and 
three  or  four  feet  wide,  laid  one  on  top  of  an- 
other, and  forming  the  retaining  wall  of  the  vast 
platform  of  the  temple.  Many  of  these  stones 
are  inscribed  with  Hebrew  characters.  In  spring 
flowers  grow  from  the  crevasses  between  them, 

—  great  masses  of  mignonette  and  blue-eyed  ve- 
ronica. Here  onFriday  afternoons  the  Jews  come. 
It  is  as  near  as  they  are  ever  allowed  to  their 
Holy  Place.  This  is  the  Wall  of  Wailing.  In  the 
soft  spring  light  the  dark-robed  figures  crowd  and 
press  against  the  precious  stones,  saluting  them 
with  kisses,  and  laying  hands  of  blessing  upon 
them.  With  a  swaying  motion  in  rhythm  with 
the  chanted  hymn  the  men  in  their  long  cloaks 
and  flowing  head-dresses  move  gently  to  the 
sound  of  the  Reader's  voice:  — 

**  Because  of  the  Palace  which  is  deserted" — 
And  the  people  answer, — 


THE   WALL   OF   WAILING 
Showing-  Hebrew  Inscriptions 


JERUSALEM  — THE   LAMENT     123 

**  We  sit  alone  and  weep. 
Because  of  the  Temple  which  is  destroyed 

We  sit  alone  and  weep. 
Because  of  the  walls  which  are  broken  down. 
We  sit  alone  and  weep. 
We  beseech  Thee  have  mercy  on  Zion, 

And  gather  together  the  children  of  Jerusalem. 
Make  speed,  make  speed,  O  Deliverer  of  Zion  ; 
Speak  after  the  heart  of  Jerusalem." 

If  thou  hadst  known,  —  if  thou  hadst  known 
the  time  of  thy  visitation !  Then,  indeed,  would 
Jerusalem  not  be  a  Moslem  city,  as  it  is  at  this 
day. 

We  are  just  in  the  season  of  Mid-Lent, — not 
only  the  commemoration  of  the  forty  days*  fast 
in  the  wilderness,  but  the  days  of  preparation  for 
the  supreme  sacrifice.  The  older  church  observed 
them  as  days  of  special  penitence  and  prayer.  Is 
it  not  a  time  for  us  each  to  regard  our  own  life, 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  outside,  to  try  to  see 
it  as  a  whole,  as  a  city  that  is  built  on  a  hill,  — 
to  note  its  bulwarks  and  foundations  ?  It  is  a  time 
of  question  and  also  a  time  of  worship.  For  the 
eyes  of  the  soul  are  opened  by  noble  worship,  by 
the  devout  contemplation  of  divine  things.  Our 
Saviour  wept  because  the  Holy  City  knew  not  the 
time  of  its  visitation.  Now  may  be  our  time  of 
renewal,  our  time  of  birth. 


124        A  BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

Each  soul  has  its  holy  city,  deep  hidden  under 
the  accretions  of  every-day  life.  These  are  the 
days  consecrated  by  the  devout  usage  of  centu- 
ries to  make  new  beginnings,  to  build  afresh, 
to  seek  divine  things.  Externals  should  drop 
away,  and  the  eternal  realities  become  living  and 
vital.  There  are  but  two,  God  and  one's  own 
soul. 

And  the  tender  voice  comes  to  us,  out  of  the 
silence:  "If  thou  hadst  known  —  if  thou  hadst 
known  the  things  which  belong  unto  thy  peace." 
Let  us  heed  it,  —  let  us  turn  with  joy  to  answer, 
"  Lord,  Thou  knowest  all  things ;  Thou  know- 
est  that  I  love  Thee  1 " 

Let  us  pray :  — 

O  Thou  who  didst  weep  over  the  Holy  City, 
Thou  good  shepherd  who  dost  search  for  one 
sheep  that  is  gone  astray,  we  come  to  Thee  ask- 
ing for  Thy  care,  longing  for  Thy  guidance. 
Thou  knowest,  O  Lord,  that  the  path  to  the 
shrine  in  our  hearts  is  blocked  by  many  petty 
cares,  a  narrow  and  devious  way.  Come,  we  be- 
seech Thee,  with  Thine  own  cleansing  and  re- 
newing might.  Open  the  way,  enlarge  our  hearts, 
fit  us  for  thine  indwelling  Spirit.  We  bless  Thee 
that  Thou  dost  make  Thy  home  with  the  hum- 


JERUSALEM— THE  LAMENT     125 

ble, — that  Thou  dost  call  us  each  by  name.  Sun 
of  Righteousness,  shine  upon  us.  Give  us,  we 
pray  Thee,  the  things  that  belong  unto  our  peace ! 
For  Christ's  sake.     Amen. 


JERUSALEM  — THE  TRIUMPH 


EASTER 

Triumphant  morn  whose  first  ray  had  such  might 

That  Life  and  Love,  which  passed  beyond  the  ken 

And  ministering  care  of  mortal  men, 
Upon  this  holy  day  could  reunite! 
O  blessed  sun,  which  saw  the  wondrous  sight. 

The  glad  re-birth  of  primal  time,  as  when 

The  radiant  sons  of  morn  in  thousands  ten 
Rejoiced  at  that  great  word.  Let  there  be  Light. 
The  first  word  when  the  tomb  was  newly  rent 

Was  to  a  grieving  woman  gently  said; 

With  two  sad  men  He  walked,  the  day  far  spent, 
And  how  their  heavy  hearts  within  them  burned 

As  comforted  into  the  inn  they  turned. 

And  He  was  known  to  them  in  breaking  bread. 


XII 

JERUSALEM  — THE  TRIUMPH 

Jesus  saith  unto  her,  I  am  the  resurrection,  and  the  life.  — 
John,  xi :  25. 

The  people  of  Israel  have  always  been  distin- 
guished by  the  honor  which  they  paid  their 
women.  Miriam,  Moses'  sister,  is  called  the 
Prophetess,  and  we  have  her  song  of  triumph, 
when  she  took  a  timbrel  in  her  hand  and  led  the 
song  of  rejoicing.  Deborah  ruled  as  a  judge  in 
the  days  when  the  tribes  were  settling  the  whole 
country.  But  it  remained  to  that  little  group  of 
women  who  followed  Jesus  from  Galilee  and 
ministered  to  Him,  to  achieve  the  supreme  hon- 
ors of  the  world.  Mary,  the  mother  of  James  and 
Joses ;  Joanna,  the  wife  of  Chuza,  Herod's  stew- 
ard; Salome,  who,  the  commentators  think,  was 
the  mother  of  Zebedee's  children,  James  and 
John;  Jesus'  own  mother,  who,  one  of  the  evan- 
gelists declares,  stood  by  the  cross  of  Jesus;  and 
Mary  Magdalene,  whom  all  fourgospels  mention 
as  being  there,  —  this  group  of  Jewish  women 
have  received  the  reverence  of  Christian  centu- 


I30        A   BRIEF  PILGRIMAGE 

ries.  Wherever  Easter  Day  is  celebrated,  the 
love  and  devotion  of  these  women  are  had  in 
tender  remembrance. 

The  Jews  are  peculiar  among  Eastern  nations 
in  holding  women  in  higher  regard  than  their 
neighbors  do.  No  veils  hide  the  women's  faces ; 
Jewish  history  abounds  in  instances  of  strong  and 
fine  womanhood.  Some  of  the  most  wonderful 
of  the  conversations  of  Jesus  were  held  with 
women.  The  conversation  with  the  woman  of 
Samaria  by  the  well,  one  cannot  miss  from  the 
Gospel  story,  for  it  was  to  her  that  He  declared, 
"  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship  Him 
must  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  And  it 
was  to  her  that  He  spoke  of  the  water  "  springing 
up  into  everlasting  life."^  It  was  to  Martha  that 
Jesus  spoke  those  blessed  words,  of  comfort  to 
every  grieving  soul,  —  words  which  are  the  very 
centre  and  substance  of  the  Easter  joy,  —  "I  am 
the  resurrection,  and  the  life."  The  deepest  and 
the  tenderest  of  His  teachings  was  first  given  to  a 
grieving  woman.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  women 
in  the  crowded  Jerusalem  streets  called  down 
blessings  upon  Him,  or  that  the  little  company 
of  His  own  friends  came  as  near  as  the  Roman 
soldiers  permitted ;  and  that  after  the  day  of  pre- 

'  John,  iv  :  14. 


fMPnur 


THE   OBEISANCE 
A  Father  teaching  his  Son 


JERUSALEM  — THE   TRIUMPH     131 

paration  very  early  in  the  morning  they  came  to 
the  sepulchre  with  precious  spices,  to  do  all  they 
could  to  testify  to  their  devotion  ? 

Let  me  try  to  picture  the  place  to  you  as  I  saw  it. 
It  must  be  greatly  changed  by  this  time,  with- 
out doubt.  Jerusalem  itself  is  not  the  same  city; 
it  has  been  conquered  and  razed  to  the  ground 
and  rebuilt  by  Roman  and  Crusader  and  Turk ; 
but  the  country  itself  must  retain  something  of 
its  primitive  features.  The  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  as  we  see  it  at  present  inside  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem,  was  built  by  the  Crusaders  in  1 103, 
but  includes  the  older  chapels  which  were  rebuilt 
in  1037  on  the  sites  of  the  earlier  chapels  which 
Constantine  had  erected  as  early  as  23  S'  Con- 
stantine's  first  buildings  were  destroyed  by  the 
Persians  and  rebuilt,  and  again  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury were  partly  destroyed  by  fire,  and  ruined 
by  the  Moslems  in  the  eleventh.  The  present 
church  as  it  stands  was  built  by  the  Crusaders, 
and  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  and  Baldwin  I  are  both 
buried  within  its  walls. 

The  centre  of  this  vast  group  of  buildings, 
which  belong  to  the  Latins,  Greeks,  Armenians, 
and  Copts,  is  a  little  shrine,  which  is  built  over 
what  has  for  centuries  been  considered  the  Holy 
Sepulchre.  This  lies  within  a  small  chapel  only 


132         A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

twenty-six  feet  long  by  eighteen  feet  broad, 
under  the  very  middle  of  the  rotunda.  There  is 
a  vestibule  to  the  east  called  the  Angel's  Chapel, 
in  the  centre  of  which  is  a  part  of  a  stone  said  to 
be  the  stone  which  was  rolled  away  from  the 
mouth  of  the  tomb.  This  rotunda  is  common 
to  all  the  Christian  sects,  and  opening  into  it  are 
the  various  other  churches  and  chapels,  —  the 
Chapel  of  the  Copts,  the  Chapel  of  the  Syrians, 
the  great  Greek  Church  and  the  Latin  Church. 
Underneath  these  churches  are  other  chapels, — 
the  Armenian  Chapel  of  St.  Helena,  which  dates 
from  the  seventh  century;  and  farther  down  is 
the  Chapel  of  the  Finding  of  the  Cross.  The 
legend  is  a  touching  one,  for  the  Empress  be- 
lieved that  she  was  divinely  directed  to  this  spot, 
and  she  herself  watched  the  digging,  until  three 
crosses,  with  the  nails,  the  crown  of  thorns,  and 
the  superscription  were  found.  It  remained,  then, 
to  identify  the  true  cross,  and  this  was  done  by 
taking  the  three  crosses  to  the  bedside  of  a  holy 
woman  who  was  dying.  The  story  is  that,  as  soon 
as  the  real  cross  touched  her,  she  was  immediately 
restored. 

It  is  a  vast  collection  of  buildings,  rich  with 
all  that  wealth  and  devotion  can  bring  to  beau- 
tify and  to  decorate ;  precious  marbles  of  price 


JERUSALEM  —  THE   TRIUMPH     133 

abound,  hanging  lamps  are  perpetually  burning 
before  all  the  holy  places,  and  to  this  wonderful 
church  from  the  very  earliest  time  thousands  of 
pilgrims  have  come  believing  that  they  saw  the 
very  place  where  our  Lord  was  laid  in  the  grave. 

Easter  Day  is  the  greatest  festival,  and  the 
church  is  thronged ;  but  Turkish  soldiers  stand 
all  about  the  central  shrine,  —  a  slouching,  un- 
kempt crowd  of  little  men,  with  dark  faces  and 
sharp,  bright,  roving  eyes.  They  are  to  keep 
peace  among  the  rival  sects  of  Christians.  Shame 
on  us  that  it  should  be  so !  Mass  is  celebrated 
early  in  the  Roman  Church,  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Jerusalem,  with  his  attending  clergy  and  aco- 
lytes, all  robed  in  gorgeous  brocade  and  scar- 
let, make  a  solemn  procession  around  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  swinging  censers  and  chanting  the 
ancient  hymns  of  the  church.  There  are  many 
devout  pilgrims  to  whom  this  is  a  real  act  of  wor- 
ship; but  the  presence  of  the  soldiery  seemed 
to  me  so  incongruous  as  almost  to  rob  the  ser- 
vice of  any  true  significance.  It  was  more  like  a 
wonderful  pageant. 

The  Greek  Church  celebrates  its  Easter  Day 
later,  as  they  still  use  the  old  calendar,  and  con- 
flicts between  the  two  branches  of  the  church 
have  not  been  unknown.  During  the  procession 


134        A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

no  women  are  allowed  on  the  floor  of  the  great 
building.  We  looked  down  from  a  little  gallery 
that  one  has  to  reach  by  a  tiny  dark  stairway. 
It  is  roofed  in,  with  arched  openings  like  the 
front  of  an  opera  box,  and  the  whole  thing  seemed 
like  a  great  performance.  One  almost  forgot 
the  religious  significance  in  the  close,  incense- 
scented  atmosphere;  and  in  the  enormous  build- 
ing crowded  with  every  nationality  there  did 
not  seem  much  of  the  renewal  of  life  and  the 
recognition  of  the  oneness  of  life  that  is  the  great 
message  of  Easter  Day.  One  longed  for  air  and 
sunshine  and  spring  uprising,  and  it  was  a  com- 
fort to  be  told  that  of  late  years  the  best  scholars 
are  of  opinion  that  this  place  within  the  walls  was 
probably  not  the  site  of  that  garden  tomb  which 
gave  its  shelter  to  that  Blessed  Body.  "Where- 
fore Jesus  also,  that  he  might  sanctify  the  peo- 
ple with  his  own  blood,  suffered  without  the 
gate,"'  the  writer  of  Hebrews  declares.  This 
site  must  always  have  been  within  the  limits  of 
the  city,  according  to  the  archaeologists,  and  it  is, 
therefore,  outside  the  gates  of  the  city  that  the 
devout  imagination  of  modern  scholars  has  dis- 
covered the  real  place  of  suffering  to  which  the 
pilgrim  must  go. 

'  Hebrews,  xiii  :  1 2. 


JERUSALEM— THE   TRIUMPH     135 

This  is  a  hill  fitly  called  "  Golgotha,"  the  place 
of  the  skull.  It  is  easy  to  form  the  great  cracks 
which  seam  its  precipitous  banks  into  a  death's- 
head.  A  wide  cavern  marks  the  place  of  the  nos- 
trils, a  gaping  mouth  is  there,  and  the  sightless 
eyes  look  from  two  hollows  near  the  top.  The 
Garden  of  Gethsemane  is  near  its  foot.  There 
are  the  olives  a  thousand  years  old  at  least, 
close  descendants  of  those  that  sheltered  the 
agony  and  heard  the  prayer.  Their  enormous 
twisted  trunks  stand  gnarled  and  gray  in  the 
springsunshine,with  the  shimmeringsilver  leaves 
still  fresh  and  lace-like  about  them.  The  ground 
is  covered  with  a  tiny  crucifer,  a  cross-flower 
blooming  in  pale  violet,  and  turning  pure  white, 
a  carpet  of  tinted  snow.  A  gentle-faced  Francis- 
can —  a  follower  of  that  sweet  St.  Francis  who, 
according  to  the  ancient  legend,  received  the  stig- 
mata himself —  tends  the  garden,  and  when  one 
rises  from  one's  knees  he  offers  of  his  treasures 
to  the  devout  visitor.  Here  lay  the  three  weary 
Galileans,  devoted  to  their  Master,  but  worn  with 
the  grief  and  excitement  of  the  day,and  here  under 
just  such  great  olive  trees  came  the  reproachful 
voice  to  them, — "Could  ye  not  watch  with  me 
one  hour?" '  And  after  the  trial  was  over  it  is 
'  Matthew,  xxvi :  40. 


136         A   BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

to  this  hill  one  must  believe  that  He  was  brought. 
"And  he  bearing  his  cross  went  forth  into  a  place 
called  the  place  of  a  skull,  which  is  called  in  the 
Hebrew  Golgotha." '  "  Now  in  the  place  where  he 
was  crucified  there  was  a  garden,"  St.  John  tells  us, 
and  "  a  new  sepulchre,  wherein  was  never  man  yet 
laid."*  It  is  all  here,  still  an  open  place  outside 
the  walls,  and  the  rock-hewn  tomb  is  still  intact. 

What  a  morning  that  was  those  centuries  ago, 
when  the  women  who  had  watched  it  all  came, 
eager  for  the  last  loving  service  they  could  ren- 
der! "While  it  was  yet  dark,"  "Very  early  in 
the  morning,"  the  accounts  say.  And  the  stone 
was  rolled  away,  and  the  Life  was  living !  Those 
beautiful  words  had  taken  on  meaning :  "  I  am 
the  resurrection,  and  the  life,"  He  had  said  to 
a  sorrowful  woman,  grieving  for  her  brother's 
death,  beside  his  tomb.  And  now  some  echo  of 
them  must  have  sounded  in  these  women's  ears 
as  in  perplexity  they  paused  with  their  task  unful- 
filled. "And  they  remembered  his  words,"  St. 
Luke  tells  us,  as  the  Angel  asked  them,  "Why 
seek  ye  the  living  among  the  dead?"  It  was 
Mary  Magdalene,  and  Joanna,  the  wife  of 
Chuza,  Herod's  steward,  and  Mary  the  mother 
of  James,  "and   other  women  that  were  with 

'  John,  xix  :  17.  «  John,  xix  :  41. 


IN  THE   GARDEN   OF   GETIISEMANE 


JERUSALEM  — THE   TRIUMPH     137 

them," '  to  whom  these  first  Easter  tidings  were 
given.  The  men  could  not  believe  them :  "Their 
words  seemed  to  them  as  idle  tales." 

It  must  always  be  one  of  the  glories  of  wo- 
manhood that  truth  can  appeal  in  a  direct  and 
concrete  form  to  her  mind;  that  there  is  a  higher 
and  purer  form  of  apprehension  than  any  process 
of  reasoning.  The  power  of  love  gives  this  men- 
tal clearness ;  and  so  to  this  company  of  women 
came  the  new  revelation  of  the  unity  of  life,  of 
the  oneness  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and  the  life 
to  come.  This  is  the  Easter  Message,  this  is  the 
Easter  Joy.  As  our  blessed  Lord  lived  a  man's 
life,  so  He  died  a  man's  death,  and  so  He  entered 
into  a  man's  fruition.  He  was  the  well-beloved 
Son,  and  He  was  the  Son  of  Man.  Under  these 
Syrian  skies,  here  on  the  outskirts  of  Jerusalem, 
with  the  same  Paschal  moon  watching  in  the 
heavens,  and  the  same  sun  shrouding  its  light  by 
day,  that  drama  of  the  world  took  place,  and  the 
most  magnificent  utterance  of  any  human  lips  was 
fulfilled,  "  I  am  the  resurrection,  and  the  life." 

Let  us  pray  :  — 

O  Lord  give  us  the  eyes  of  faith,  we  beseech 
Thee,  that  turning  from  grief,  and  the  things  of 

'  Luke,  xxiv  :  lo. 


138        A  BRIEF   PILGRIMAGE 

this  world  we  may  see  Jesus.  He  was  wounded  for 
our  transgressions,  the  chastisement  of  our  peace 
is  upon  Him.  May  it  not  be  in  vain  for  us,  dear 
Lord.  He,  having  tasted  death  for  all  men,  alone 
can  bring  us  life.  May  we  take  it  with  thanks- 
giving, living  with  new  fullness,  with  new  glad- 
ness, because  of  our  blessed  Master's  triumph. 
Make  us  one  with  Him,  in  the  joy  of  this  Easter 
Day,  knowing  that  whosoever  liveth  and  believ- 
eth  in  Him  shall  never  die.     Amen. 


CAiMBRIUGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


^(33-^ 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  669  070     5 


